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| The Grand Turk | ||
| Turkey to cut ties with Israel if no apology | ||
| 2010-07-06 | ||
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Israel will never say sorry for defending itself, a senior government official said on Monday after Turkey demanded an apology for a deadly commando raid on an a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza. "Israel will never apologize for defending its citizens," the official told AFP. "Of course, we regret the loss of life but it was not the Israeli side that initiated the violence." His remarks were made after Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed Ankara would sever diplomatic ties with Israel unless it apologized over the operation which left nine people dead, all of them Turkish nationals.
"When you want an apology, you don't use threats or ultimatums," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP. "Everything leads us to believe that Turkey has another agenda in mind," he said, without giving further details. Ties will severed
"Israel has three paths ahead: It either apologizes, or accepts the findings from an international commission investigating the raid, or Turkey will cut off ties," Davutoglu told Hurriyet newspaper. Once Israel's closest Muslim ally, Turkey has said several times it wants Israel to apologize over the May 31 raid, pay compensation, agree to a U.N. inquiry into the incident and lift the blockade of 1.6 million Palestinians living in Gaza Strip. Turkey has said before it was reviewing ties with the Jewish state. But Davutoglu's words are the first time Ankara has explicitly threatened to sever ties unless its demands are met. Israel has opened its own inquiry. "If this commission concludes that the raid was unjust and if they apologize, that will be sufficient," Davutoglu said, although he insisted that Turkey wanted compensation from the Jewish state. Davutoglu met Israel's Trade and Industry Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer last week in Brussels in talks aimed at mending fences. Turkey said then it had told Israel what it should do to repair ties. "The messages conveyed to Ben-Eliezer have reached the Israeli government. We will not wait forever for an answer," Davutoglu told Hurriyet's Monday edition. "It will be enough if their own commission rules that the raid was unfair and they apologise in line with the commission's verdict, but we have to see the verdict first." Nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed when Israeli commandos stormed the Turkish-flagged ship Mavi Marmara on May 31 as part of an operation to stop a relief aid flotilla headed for Israeli-blockaded Gaza. Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel, cancelled joint military operations and barred Israeli military aircraft from Turkish airspace after the incident. | ||
| Posted by:Fred |
| #12 ISRAEL R UAV's; after all. |
| Posted by: Asymmetrical Triangulation 2010-07-06 23:11 |
| #11 The timing of such things is critical. I'm sure they'll want to take delivery of the Israeli Heron UAVs they've ordered before totally rupturing ties Ship 'em with instruction manuals in Hebrew and no spare parts. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2010-07-06 12:02 |
| #10 I think it would be smarter to get the US out of NATO. The problem with NATO is all the allies expect the US to do the heavy lifting. Leaving NATO for a while might fix that. |
| Posted by: flash91 2010-07-06 11:45 |
| #9 None of them considered the NATO and the West the enemy nor propagandized their citizens to look upon us as the enemy (Though I sometimes wonder about the Greeks). Russians still believe they are the bully in the schoolyard and should run the place. At best you will have a Russia subverting NATO from the inside while trying to peel off their former thralls. A malevolent FSB run dictatorship (even if the fist is hidden in a velvet glove) will cause chaos in a consensus run NATO. It's hard enough to get anything done with just the French (who were only recently allowed to return to the decision making body). Let the Russians decide what type of society they will first become. And some of NATO's newest Balkan members should not have been let in the last expansion round. |
| Posted by: ed 2010-07-06 09:45 |
| #8 Neither Spain under Franco nor Portugal under Salazar nor Greece under the generals was a real democracy, and yet all of them were stalwart and useful NATO allies. We're running out of options. NATO has just lost its 2nd largest military power. The financial crisis will force us -- Barry or no Barry, regardless who's in the White House-- to cut back our military commitments, as the UK is now doing. We don't have any choice but to find allies who can and will do more, and shoulder more of the burden. India and Russia are now far more important to this nation than any west European ally. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-07-06 09:15 |
| #7 Lex, pardon moi, but let's wait until Russia becomes a real democracy, not a FSB mob run dictatorship masquerading as a "managed democracy". |
| Posted by: ed 2010-07-06 09:03 |
| #6 Kick Turkey out of NATO. Bring Russia in. Hug the bear and move the West's defense lines north and eastward. We could put missiles on Iran's doorstep and play the Russia card against China while we're at it. Given Europe's bankruptcy (even Britain's slashing military spending now) and Turkey's defection, I'm not sure we have any choice. NATO in its current form is a dead letter. Time to move it eastward-- all the way to Vladivostok. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-07-06 08:48 |
| #5 Make one wonder how frisky they will be after receiving F-35s. |
| Posted by: ed 2010-07-06 07:05 |
| #4 Israel needs to put a programmed and timed bug in the Heron before releasing them to Turkey. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2010-07-06 06:28 |
| #3 The timing of such things is critical. I'm sure they'll want to take delivery of the Israeli Heron UAVs they've ordered before totally rupturing ties. |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-07-06 05:39 |
| #2 They still owe the US people and military an apology for NOT LETTING the 4th ID transit their shitty little country! |
| Posted by: 3dc 2010-07-06 00:45 |
| #1 I think Turkey should get the Fuck out of NATO! |
| Posted by: 3dc 2010-07-06 00:44 |