According to one Turkish friend, IHH is a radical Islamist group in Turkey that was branded as "first degree dangerous" by Turkish intelligence. It supports Milli Görüş, the political platform of Necmettin Erbakan, a former Turkish PM who was removed from power by the military in 1997 for attempting to overthrow the secular state. Erbakan is the former political tutor of both current Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gül.
Reportedly, in Turkish interviews with members of IHH, the protesters were eager for martyrdom and so were happy to have the chance to be attacked by Israel. It helps to explain why 30 or so of the activists decided to stay on deck and attack the commandos, while the other 500+ went inside to avoid conflict. Like Joe said, these guys are not your run-of-the-mill peace activists.
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The reports I'm seeing about IHH reek of propaganda. The 1997 raid wasn't anything special. That year the Turkish military cracked down on many religious organizations, most for their religiosity, not their actual links to terrorist groups. Christ, if your wife wore a headscarf in 1997 you were probably labeled "first degree dangerous."
As for what happened on the ship, if you've ever been involved in any protest or group action, the dynamics of the situation will sound pretty familiar. The majority of the 600 or so passengers are interested in staging a peaceful protest while a small minority are interested in direct confrontation.
That doesn't make them an organized terror unit by any stretch of the imagination.
It is also telling that most of the negative info about IHH is being pushed by AIPAC http://www.aipac.org/130.asp#36153 and a group called the Israel Project. From the NYT:
The Turkish group is a charity, members said, but the Israel Project, a private nonprofit advocacy group, sent an Internet link to journalists with references to what it described as the group’s “radical Islamic, anti-Western orientation.” The link alleges that the group supports Hamas, in part through a branch it opened in the Gaza Strip, the charity it sends them, and in meetings and speeches by Bulent Yildirim, its leader, and Hamas officials.
Gut feeling: the IHH is certainly a very religious organization, definitely has had talks with Hamas official (any organization that wants to send aid or building materials to Gaza inevitably has), but is absolutely not a terrorist organization and attempts to "link" them to known terrorist are at best misleading
Yes, I disregarded the claims at first too because of the sources. And of course its not hard to be labeled dangerous by the state if you're Islamic.
With that being said, Caner told me that IHH is not a bunch of Gulenists, these guys are very radical, and that in interviews on Turkish television many of them were saying that they were hoping to become martyrs.
That may be par for the course in some circles, but wanting to die still counts as radical in my book.
