"Dateline Istanbul
Amira Howeidy assesses the likely impact of Turkey's new all-Arabic TV channel
It started when Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked out of the January 2009 Economic Summit in Davos over Israel's 22-day war on Gaza, since when his popularity across the Arab world has continued to surge. In October 2009 Turkey cancelled a joint military exercise with Israel in protest at the Gaza war. In January this year, after Israel's foreign minister insulted Turkey's ambassador to Tel Aviv over a Turkish soap opera that depicted the Israeli army's war crimes, Ankara threatened to withdraw its ambassador if Israel did not apologise. Israel caved in and issued a public apology. "
More:Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | Dateline Istanbul
