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Turkey Protests as Israel Announces Internal Fotilla Probe
Israel has said it will launch its own investigations into last week's deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla, after rejecting a UN proposal for an international probe into the attack.
The Israeli attack on the aid flotilla has drawn condemnation around the world. The announcement of the Israeli investigations came as Turkey's prime minister reiterated calls for an immediate international inquiry into the Israeli commando raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla.(Getty) In a statement on Monday, the Israeli military said it was gathering
an "internal team of experts" to examine the operation and "establish
lessons from the event".
It said the investigation would report its findings on the attack, which left nine activists dead and more than 100 wounded, on July 4.
The Israeli government is also set to announce its own investigative panel, defence minister Ehud Barak told Israel's parliament on Monday.
Barak gave no details of the format of such a probe, which Israeli media reports said was still being worked out.
He also suggested Israel was also looking at ways to amend its four-year blockade on the Gaza Strip, although he added it would maintain restrictions it sees as essential to preventing Iranian missiles from reaching the Palestinian territory.
Barak said the planned investigation would run separately from the military investigation, and would seek to establish whether Israel's blockade of Gaza and its raid "met with the standards of international law".
"We will draw lessons at the political level, (and) in the security establishment," he said.
'Unlawful'
The announcement of the Israeli investigations came as Turkey's prime minister reiterated calls for an immediate international inquiry into the Israeli commando raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla.
Speaking on the first day of an Asia security summit in Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Israeli attack was "unlawful" and required a UN backed "transparent" investigation.
"We believe that an independent inquiry ... to investigate this unlawful incident in a very transparent and fair manner ... has to be initiated as soon as possible," Erdogan said.
"We will be following that up and we would like to ask the UN to pursue this matter to the end."
Eight of those killed in the raid were Turkish citizens, while the other had dual US-Turkish citizenship.
Erdogan made his comments at a joint news conference with Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president.
"The time has come to lift the embargo on Gaza," said the Turkish prime minister.
"We don't want an open air prison in the world any more."
Blockade
Al-Assad echoed Erdogan's call for an investigation as well urging an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which began in 2007.
"As a minimum we should see the establishment of a neutral investigation committee in addition to lifting the blockade," al-Assad said.
"If blood was shed for a certain objective we should make everything possible to achieve their objective [to break the blockade] and we should continue in our efforts on this path."
Erdogan and al-Assad were speaking on the opening day of a two-day summit on security in Asia.
Turkey said Israel, also a member, was invited but was not expected to be at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia.summit.
Alliance
Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Istanbul, said Erdogan is looking for partners in the region to take action against Israel.
"What this regional security summit is about is Turkey figuring out what partners it has if it moves to try and isolate Israel, politically, economically, militarily, however it can," she said.
Turkey had a solid alliance with Israel until the Gaza war in early 2009.
Following last week's attack, Ankara said it would reduce its military and trade ties with Israel and has shelved discussions on energy projects, including natural gas and fresh water shipments.
It has also threatened to break ties unless Israel apologises for the raid.
Speaking on the sidelines of the conference in Istanbul, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, said his country was "evaluating everything".
"It is up to Israel how our ties will continue," he said.
"Israel has to accept the consequences of its actions and be held accountable".
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16 Comments so far
Show AllZionists were willing for the UN to vote them into power in the Middle East. Why is zionist Israel now afraid to let the UN do an international probe on what happened to the flotilla? Could they possible have something to hide? Israel is so transparent only the blind in the United States, who are used to being led around by the Zionist lobby, can not see through it.
Perhaps I am mistaken but I would have thought that if a member of NATO [Turkey] was attacked then the UN must come to its defense. Why the hesitancy on the part of the UN to do just that?
Why? Because of the US. The US stops every UN attempt to even rebuke Israel for its mass-murders, let alone investigate or (don't make me laugh) come to the defense of one of its countless victims.
Israel investigating itself?
Were Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer ever allowed to investigate their murders? Cynical and depraved, typical of that fake country.
Israel has already completed their internal inquiry, with every cabinet minister and senior military officer testifying that the ship assault was justified and blameless. The accused will not get to testify and the impartial will not judge. Similar to their Gaza invasion inquiry, the Israeli supreme court will, as usual, find the army and politicians blameless.
For this reason, Turkey should hold its own open inquiry, calling on the flotilla participants to testify and inviting noted international jurists and humanists to judge. The Israelis should be invited to testify . The world can watch and weigh the evidence. So what if the decision carries no weight or means to penalize the guilty. It will have moral weight.
Oh seasalt, you are worth your salt with this idea! I would like Turkey to proceed with a JUDGEMENT at GAZA.
I would like it to be at sea too. I suppose that would have to be run by Israel, of course, as their International waters definition seems to contain the entire ocean.
Oh, yes, JUDGEMENT AT GAZA ship, please take Israel's conclusions, although we know that those conclusions are the ever popular" foregone" ones, and Turkey, give free voice to the flotilla witnesses, as this is something that the world,
should "NEVER FORGET."
This should be held sometime in September, to coincide with the Rachel Corrie trial, and I'm sure that we already know that conclusion; in fact, the Rachel Corrie should be the JUDGEMENT AT GAZA ship. I would also like both Mr. Obama and Sweden to attend this tribunal, since the Peace Prize seems to be so offensive to Mr. Obama, then perhaps Sweden should "pluck it out!"
Very good idea.
I assume then that there are no Judges or lawyers in Israel. Every suspected criminal is allowed to perform his own investigation and report back with a verdict.
Seriously, does the Israeli government really think anyone will give their findings one iota of credence?
"Israel has said it will launch its own investigations into last week's deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla"
Ha-ha-ha-ha! A fair and balanced investigation perhaps?
The finding is already written, it just remains to cherry-pick the details and fine tune the script.
Pepe Escobar has an explanation that makes sense:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LF09Ak01.html
A knife never cuts its handle.
There is in the New York Times - some advertisement .
it shows some holocaust survivors and an "invitation" to travel and see the nazi concentration camps like Dachau..
at the bottom left is a "Star of David" standing for Israel and jews, at the bottom right is the NAZI swastika - clearly to bring home the point of "israel being jewish and the jewish holocaust" (the others are not that important, apparently, they were just Gypsies, homosexuals, -- non-jewish).
it's ironic that the TWO symbols "star of david" and the Nazi Swastika are NOW
MERGED as ONE - in the State of Israel.
# The New York Times
R
June 8, 2010
TURKEY GOES FROM PLIABLE ALLY TO THORN FOR U.S.
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and MICHAEL SLACKMAN
ANKARA, Turkey — For decades, Turkey was one of the United States’ most pliable allies, a strategic border state on the edge of the Middle East that reliably followed American policy. But recently, it has asserted a new approach in the region, its words and methods as likely to provoke Washington as to advance its own interests.
The change in Turkey’s policy burst into public view last week, after the deadly Israeli commando raid on a Turkish flotilla, which nearly severed relations with Israel, Turkey’s longtime ally. Just a month ago, Turkey infuriated the United States when it announced that along with Brazil, it had struck a deal with Iran to ease a nuclear standoff, and on Tuesday it warmly welcomed Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the Russian prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, at a regional security summit meeting in Istanbul.
Turkey’s shifting foreign policy is making its prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a hero to the Arab world, and is openly challenging the way the United States manages its two most pressing issues in the region, Iran’s nuclear program and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Turkey is seen increasingly in Washington as “running around the region doing things that are at cross-purposes to what the big powers in the region want,” said Steven A. Cook, a scholar with the Council on Foreign Relations. The question being asked, he said, is “How do we keep the Turks in their lane?”
From Turkey’s perspective, however, it is simply finding its footing in its own backyard, a troubled region that has been in turmoil for years, in part as a result of American policy making. Turkey has also been frustrated in its longstanding desire to join the European Union.
“The Americans, no matter what they say, cannot get used to a new world where regional powers want to have a say in regional and global politics,” said Soli Ozel, a professor of international relations at Bilgi University in Istanbul. “This is our neighborhood, and we don’t want trouble. The Americans create havoc, and we are left holding the bag.”
ARTICLE CONTINUED
==================
Turkey’s rise as a regional power may seem sudden, but it has been evolving for years, since the end of the cold war, when the world was a simple alignment of black and white and Turkey, a Muslim democracy founded in 1923, was a junior partner in the American camp.
Twenty years later, the map has been redrawn. Turkey is now a vibrant, competitive democracy with an economy that would rank as the sixth largest in Europe. Unlike Jordan and Egypt, which rely heavily on American aid, it is financially independent of the United States. And, paradoxically, its democracy has created some problems with Washington: Members of Mr. Erdogan’s own party defected in 2003, for example, voting not to allow the Americans to attack Iraq from Turkish territory.
Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, said in an interview that economics was at the heart of the new policy. The party he belongs to, led by Mr. Erdogan, is made up of merchants and traders, who are more devoted to their business interests than to advancing Islamic solidarity.
“Economic interdependence is the best way to achieve peace,” he said at his home in Ankara last weekend. “In the 1990s we had severe tension all around us, and Turkey paid a huge bill because of that. Now we want to establish a peaceful order around us.”
But that vision has led to friction with Washington, particularly over Iran, Turkey’s only alternative energy source after Russia.
“They are ambitious, and this gives them a major role on the world stage,” said a senior American official. “But there is a risk that Americans won’t understand what Turkey is doing, and that will have consequences for the relationship.”
It is Mr. Erdogan’s confrontation with Israel, which he accused of “state terrorism” in the flotilla raid, that raised the loudest alarms for Americans. Many see his fiery statements as a sign that he has not only abandoned the quest to join the European Union, but is aligning himself with Islamic rivals of the West.
Yet, for years Mr. Erdogan encouraged closer ties with Israel, even taking a planeload of businessmen to Tel Aviv in 2005. While the relationship has deteriorated badly in recent years — with Mr. Erdogan lambasting Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, over the Israeli military’s tactics in the Gaza campaign — Jewish leaders in Istanbul say that it is more about Mr. Erdogan’s dislike of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than his view of Israel.
“The Jewish community in Turkey is not at all alarmed,” said Ishak Alaton, a prominent Jewish businessman in Istanbul. The tough talk, he said, is simply Mr. Erdogan’s style, an attempt to score points ahead of an election.
Mr. Erdogan, though a pragmatist, is also a devout Muslim, a category that was once the underdog in secular Turkish society, and sympathy for the Palestinians is ingrained. He is hotheaded, with a street fighter’s swagger that becomes more pronounced in crises. He took personal offense, for example, when Ehud Olmert, then Israel’s prime minister, began without warning the bombing of Gaza while Mr. Erdogan was mediating talks between Israel and Syria.
Shafeeq Ghabra, a political science professor at Kuwait University, argued that Turkey had stepped into a vacuum left by a failed peace process, and that it was trying to “save the Palestinians from becoming desperate again and save Israel from itself.”
That may be so, but Mr. Erdogan’s tough talk eliminates Turkey’s place at the table as a moderator with Israel, analysts said, and also boxes in the Obama administration, forcing it into a choice between allies that the Turks are sure to lose.
Behind the friction between the United States and Turkey is a larger question about how to approach crises in the Middle East, argues Stephen Kinzer, author of the book “Reset: Iran, Turkey and America’s Future.” Turkey calls for talks, while Washington seeks sanctions. “Turks are telling the U.S.: ‘The cold war’s over. You have to take a more cooperative approach, and we can help,’ ” said Mr. Kinzer, a former New York Times correspondent. “The U.S. is not prepared to accept that offer.”
Turkish and American officials play down their differences, saying they share the goal of peace in the Middle East. But certain viewpoints — on Hamas and Israel’s security concerns — do seem to be throwing up insurmountable obstacles, and some see the Turkish stance as ignoring the realities.
“The world hasn’t changed in 48 hours just because a boat was raided,” said Asli Aydintasbas, a columnist for the Turkish daily Milliyet. “Ankara thinks it is remaking the world, but in the long run this could backfire.”
Sabrina Tavernise reported from Ankara, and Michael Slackman from Cairo.
the question arises every time the turkish role is brought up relating to the peace floatilla that israel attacked in the high seas.doesn't it surprise anyone why the commentators hardly if ever brought the positions of the arab rulers on this matter to light? after all, the peace floatilla was organized to help the gazans, an arab community devastated not only by israel but by egypt blockade as well.why the saudis, the jordanians, the gulf emmarets, iraq and on and on, are surreptitiously quite?well let us look at egypt. king husni is busy kissing the israel and american rings so that mossad will allow his son to succeed him to the thrown. good simaritan husni appointed his son as head of the ruling party. his ruling party rubber stamps legeslations forbidding any opposition to run for the job untill it was sanctioned by this ruling party. some democracy. hey this seems to sit well with te US regimes that guaratees egypt to stay in line.the americans were relieved that they don't have to commit to war on egypt in order to bring to them this desired democacy. somehow baby husni seems to forget what happened to king faruk and then to sadat. Well this his headache. then there is the saudis boys, the darlings of bush. one shouldn't forget how the illustreous king was photo uped hand in hand strolling with bush at a time when the american onslaught was devastating iraq.they also fabricated satilite images purportedly showing iraqi forces massing on the saudi borders, that turned out to be false when compared with similar russian images of the same location at the same date.. this was done to enhance the americans intent to attack iraq. of course the good king abdullah is a very shrewd man with a sharp memory. he remembers vividly how his brother was assasinated when he(king faisal) demanded from the americans that he is determined to pray in jerusalim mosque. the americans have no broblem picking his successor from monte carlo's casinos when he was loosing some 7 million dollars gambling every night, and giving cadilacs as presents to his mistrisses.king abdullah knows that there are 5000 saudi princes waiting in line to becaome the next king, with the american and israel approval of course. so he is best stay a good boy listen well to what he was instructed to do, and thus secure his longivity. and , by the way, submit a peace proposal with his siganature giving palestine away to the israelis. even that submission was not acceptable to the israelis, not yet anyway. and dose any one really think that the gulf states rullers any different? knowing that they are ALL american educated, and firm believer in free market economy that was desined by the federal bank directors, like greenspan.one thing i must admit that the jordanian king is a very smart cooky. he learned fast. lately he couldn't attack israel on its peace floatilla massacre. so he sent his wife to do the dirty work for him.sort of like cheny when he has his wife and daughter became his spokepersons.one thing more about our young new king. his father was on the death bed of cancer when he huridly left the hoaspital to come to jordantwo days before he passed away to announce that he changed his mind about the crown prince, who was then his brother. he appointed his son, because the israeli were not comfortable with his brother's pan arab feelings.and because his sons mother was british.