Ankara, Turkey – Turkey is preparing to challenge Israel’s blockade on Gaza at the International Court of Justice, the foreign minister said Saturday, ratcheting up tensions between the once close allies.
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Ahmet Davutoglu’s comments came a day after Turkey expelled the Israel’s ambassador and severed military ties with the country, angered over its refusal to apologize for last year’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed nine pro-Palestinian activists.
In an interview with Turkey’s state-run TRT television, Davutoglu dismissed a U.N. report into the raid that said Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza was a legal security measure. Davutoglu said the report — prepared by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, and presented to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon — was not endorsed by the United Nations and was therefore not binding.
“What is binding is the International Court of Justice,” Davutoglu said. “This is what we are saying: let the International Court of Justice decide.”
“We are starting the necessary legal procedures this coming week,” he said.
But Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said his country has nothing to apologize for and that it has done all it could to avoid a crisis with Turkey. He said the Turks apparently intended to raise tensions with Israel for its own reasons.
“The problem here is on the Turkish side. … They were not ready for a compromise and kept raising the threshold,” Ayalon said on Israeli TV Saturday. “I think we need to say to the Turks: as far as we are concerned, this saga is behind us. Now we need to cooperate. Lack of cooperation harms not only us, but Turkey as well.”
Davutoglu said the U.N. report released Friday contradicted an earlier report on the Gaza flotilla incident which found that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided the flotilla. That report was prepared in September by three human rights experts appointed by the U.N.’s top human rights body.
He also warned Israel that it risks alienation among Arab nations by resisting an apology.
“If Israel persists with its current position, the Arab spring will give rise to a strong Israel opposition as well as the debate on the authoritarian regimes,” Davutoglu said.
On Friday, Turkey downgraded its diplomatic ties with Israel to the level of second secretary and gave the ambassador and other high-level diplomats until Wednesday to leave the country. In other measures against Israel, Turkey suspended military agreements, promised to back legal actions against Israel by the raid victims’ families, and vowed to take steps to ensure freedom to navigate in the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkish officials refused to elaborate on their government’s latest move, but some analysts suggested Turkey could send navy vessels to escort aid ships in the future.
Turkey’s main opposition party on Friday warned that such a step could lead to confrontation between Turkish and Israeli forces. “The probability that (Turkey’s ruling) party has carried Turkey to the brink of a hot conflict is saddening and unacceptable,” said Faruk Logoglu, a deputy chairman of the opposition Republican People’s Party.
On Saturday, Ban urged Turkey and Israel to mend ties for the good of the Middle East peace process. “I sincerely hope that Israel and Turkey will improve their relationship,” Ban told reporters during a visit to Australia.
“Both countries are very important countries in the region and their improved relationship — normal relationship — will be very important in addressing all the situations in the Middle East, including the Middle East peace process,” he said, referring to a negotiated Palestinian-Israeli peace pact.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman said the U.N. committee’s report concluded that Israel had acted within its rights and said he hoped it would help “put the relationship between Jerusalem and Ankara back on the right track.”
“The U.N. commission clearly states that Israel acted legally in imposing the naval blockade to protect our people from the smuggling of rockets and weapons that are fired at our civilians,” the spokesman, Mark Regev, said.
The U.N. report released Friday called the May 31, 2010 Israeli raid “excessive and unreasonable.” The U.N. panel also blamed Turkey and flotilla organizers for contributing to the deaths.
Israel insists its forces acted in self-defense and says there will be no apology. Israeli officials pointed out that the report does not demand an apology. Rather, it says “an appropriate statement of regret should be made by Israel in respect of the incident in light of its consequences.”
and these are the “good” arabs.
the usa just gave turkey a new up grades radar station and obama has nothing to say with our nato partner this is why strong pro israel congressmen are important and more importantly that we vote against welprin a welprin win will be seen as an obama win
Let them issue a “statement of regret” and move on before EY loses any “friends” it may have left in the entire region. I’m sure there will be those who mindlessly will mumble that EY can rely on hashem to protect it and doesn’t need any friends or allies. The reality is we need BOTH.
The next country to fall in the middle east will be Turkey. Let’s see what they will say then. YMS.
Some people’s “need” to be right blind them to all other possibilities. Israel had every right to board the ship as any other nation would have in similar circumstances. If the shoe were on the other foot, Turkey would have handled the situation exactly the same way. The fact that the IDF boarded with rubber bullets shows that their intent was NOT to hurt anyone. What other country would have been so tolerant? Which other fanatics would have attacked soldiers peaceably boarding the ship?
Turkey is the county that introduced the concept of genocide into the modern world with the mass murder of the Armenians in 1916. They are a race of detestable goyim.
This is being done to bolster the ruling party’s domestic political standing. Turkey will end up paying for this on the international scene. No other country in the world is interested in carrying on with this blockade-breaking silliness.
What chutzpah these Turkish have! After all the crimes against humanity they committed they want a apology for the killing of nine terrorists! I hope Israel won’t give in to these idiots.
turkey pushed the envelope by sending out this private navy they knew that it would cause israel to react and they want an apology only germany and possibly france have the guts to tell turkey back down the un blamed them and still they push on only a moslem could do that
Try turkey for genocide at the int’l court then we will see if they stop their stupidity and please go vote for turner on September13 enough with people who vote with obama
The Turks want an apology, so I have the perfect solution. Let’s send all the naturei karta klux klan members to Turkey! The NK numbskulls will endlessly dump on Israel in every single Turkish media outlet, over and over and over over and over and over and over and over … until even the Turks will get sick of them. However, since no one else wants them, the NK weirdos will simply be stuck there in lovely Turkey, surrounded by their hamas friends. The endless nonsense coming from the mouths of the NK imbeciles will constitute “apology” for Israel as far as the Turks are concerned, but, since no one else actually cares what the NK illiterates say, it won’t really matter, and the extra upside is that the NK-oids will be stuck there and no longer bugging the rest of us!
It would be a big win-win!
Germany does not want turkey in the EU because it does not want millions of Turkeys coming into Germany. Israel you push for Cyprus to sue to be freed from Turkish control
Being # 11 on the list
To #6 - You described the Turks as “a race of detestable goyim”. The fact of the matter is that during the Holocaust, when most nations turned Jews away from its borders, Turkey did the opposite, savings thousands of Jews. After the Jews were kicked out of Spain in 1492, Turkey invited them to live in Turkey. Also, during the Korean War, as part of the UN mandate against the North Koreans and Chinese, the Turks sent their soldiers to fight, and in one instance rescued an American patrol, which had been surrounded.
Arabs who see Turkey as their friend are denying their history as surely as they are denying the Jews’ history.