Breaking: Bashir Cancels Turkey Visit, After All

Published November 08, 2009 @ 01:42PM PT

[Update: Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan told a state-run news agency that he is comfortable talking to Bashir "Because a Muslim couldn't do such things. A Muslim could not commit genocide." Can he really be that naive and foolish?]

What caused Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to cancel plans to visit Turkey this weekend?

The indicted war criminal was scheduled to fly to Turkey on Sunday for a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The trip grabbed international headlines after human rights groups protested the rolling out of the Turkish welcome mat for the wanted president, and European Union (EU) asked the wanna-be-EU-member to rescind the invitation. Turkey, however, remained defiant.

But word broke this afternoon that Bashir's plane left for Turkey without its VIP passenger -- though the reason remains unclear. Did Bashir cancel his visit at the last minute because:

a.) Turkey caved to EU pressure and quietly revoked the invitation?

b.) He was worried by rumors that Israel or Greece might intercept is plane en-route and arrest his genocidal arse? Or,

c.) Who the hell knows, but I sure would've paid money to be a fly on the wall of the room where that decision was made.

Option B seems far-fetched. Even if Israel and Greece are committed to arresting Bashir, would they actually go so far as to force down his plane? My guess is that Turkey quietly revoked the invitation and Khartoum offered the excuse as a face-saver for both Turkey and Bashir -- by making it seem like the decision was Bashir's, it avoids a bit of public embarrassment over Turkey's submission to EU and US pressure and over Bashir's increasing status as an international persona non grata.

Though if Turkey did ask him not to come, I'd imagine that Bashir is none-too-happy about his erstwhile host caving to the pressure of those crazy Western-neocolonial-imperialist-Zionist-always-out-to-get-us jerks. But given that Khartoum is intently pursuing normalized relations with the US, I suspect they'll leave any such hard feelings out of official press releases.

[Photo from Wikimedia Commons: Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, listens to a speech during the opening of the 20th session of The New Partnership for Africa's Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Jan. 31, 2009.]

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Michelle became involved in the anti-genocide cause at a young age, and has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns, ever since.