A Turkish court acceded to the request of prosecutors and issued arrest warrants May 26 in the names of four leading Israelis for their alleged role in the 2010 Mavi Marmara episode. The demand for the arrests flies in the face of media reports and comments from Turkish leaders that they are close to an agreement with Israel for a normalization of ties that were frozen after the 2010 incident.
Turkish prosecutors have already sought multiple life sentences for the now-retired Israeli officers over their involvement in the killings. Among the charges listed in the 144-page indictment are “inciting murder through cruelty or torture” and “inciting injury with firearms”.
Israel has dismissed the proceedings as a political show trial.
The Israelis in question are then IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi, navy commander Eliezer Marom, head of Military Intelligence Amos Yadlin and head of Air Force Intelligence Avishai Levy.
“I won’t be visiting Turkey, just like I won’t be visiting Syria, Iran or North Korea,” Yadlin told Reuters.
The court in Istanbul will ask Interpol to issue international arrest warrants for four men involved in a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, Cihat Gokdemir, a lawyer working on the case, told AFP.
Earlier in May, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said talks between Ankara and Jerusalem were heading in a “positive” direction.
Turkey’s former ambassador to Tel Aviv Oğuz Çelikkol said May 27 “the crisis period between Turkey and Israel has ended.”
As it did prior to the diplomatic spat, whenever Turkey faced disasters, Israel offered assistance to Ankara in the wake of the mine explosion in Soma this month.
The possibility of a warmer relationship between the countries has come as bad news for Hamas, which has until now enjoyed a growing dalliance with Erdogan’s Turkey.
However, for the time being Hamas can rest easy as Turkey continues its witch hunt against those who created a naval blockade in order to protect Israel from a potential terror infiltration, legally so, as the United Nations made clear.
[Photo: Kimdime / Wiki Commons]