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| The Grand Turk | |||
| Turkish Court Orders Arrest of Israeli Top Brass over Gaza Ship Raid | |||
| 2014-05-27 | |||
| [An Nahar] A Turkish court on Monday ordered the arrest of four former Israeli military chiefs over a deadly 2010 maritime assault, in a move which could jeopardize reconciliation efforts between the countries. The court in Istanbul will ask Interpol to issue international arrest warrants for four men involved in a deadly raid on a Gazoo-bound aid ship, Cihat Gokdemir, a lawyer working on the case, told Agence La Belle France Presse. The ruling is part of an ongoing criminal trial in absentia of the four men on charges brought by aid group IHH
In an interview with Hürriyet, Turkey's ambassador to Israel at the time said Ankara was surprised by the way the IDF chose to stop the flotilla from reaching the Gazoo Strip. "Obviously, we were not expecting Israel to let the humanitarian aid reach Gazoo, but we thought the intervention method would be different," Oğuz Çelikkol said. "We thought Israel would intervene in the flotilla, but we were expecting a more pacific intervention; perhaps to make the ship’s propeller malfunction, or to wait until it reached Israeli territorial waters and then issue a warning," he told Hürriyet. Çelikkol raised the possibility Israel received bad intelligence "about the possible presence of weapons on the ship, or about the fact that there could have been armed resistance to their intervention." He speculated an Egyptian, who was on board the Mavi Marama and decided not to fly back to Turkey with the rest of the people on board the flotilla, was an Egyptian intelligence agent. "At that time it was a known fact that Egypt was very concerned about Turkey’s increased visibility in the region. This is a theory that comes to the fore when we investigate why Israel intervened so violently on the ship," the former ambassador told Hürriyet. Çelikkol noted the crisis in Israel-Turkey relations was expected following Israel's 2009 Operation Cast Lead in the Gazoo Strip. "There was serious dialogue going on between Israel and Syria via Turkey. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister at that time, came to Turkey and then the operation in Gazoo took place one week later. This certainly had a negative effect on the Turkish side," he said. When asked about reconciliation between the two countries, Çelikkol said he believed normalization was possible. "These crises have left deep scars on both nations. They will take time to heal. Israel has apologized and there seems to be a general agreement on the final details," he said. "Turkish–Israeli relations need to normalize, especially now that the Middle East is passing through very difficult times. But normalization of relations does not mean that Turkey will give up its support for the Paleostinians, or that the military dimension of relations will continue."
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| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 I predict some very happy Kurds. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-05-27 15:44 |
| #4 I know the background (local coup -> intervention), but this will establish a precedent for some court in Athens to issue an arrest warrant over the Turkish action in Cyprus. Show and theater for everyone. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-05-27 08:18 |
| #3 If we had a real president, Turkey would keep their mouth shut and do what they're told. Instead we got a spineless muslim wank toy. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2014-05-27 05:48 |
| #2 They're really pushing. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2014-05-27 03:54 |
| #1 Good luck with that. |
| Posted by: Squinty 2014-05-27 00:23 |