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Israel boat raid sparks condemnations, protests

by Sibel Utku Bila

Monday, May 31, 2010

ANKARA (AFP) – Turkey recalled its envoy from Tel Aviv Monday and urged an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after a deadly Israeli raid on aid ships, including Turkish vessels, bound for Gaza.

"Our ambassador to Israel has been recalled to Ankara," Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told a press conference.

He said plans for three joint military exercises with Israel had been scrapped and that Turkey had called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, where it holds a non-permanent seat.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was already heading to New York, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, currently in Chile, would cut short his visit and return home Tuesday, he added.

Many of the reported 19 passengers killed in the operation were Turks, according to pro-Palestinian activists involved in the campaign to break the blockade of Gaza, whose bloody end marked a new low in the once-flourishing Turkish-Israeli ties.

"By targeting civilians, Israel has once again shown its disregard for human life and peaceful initiatives," a foreign ministry statement said.

"This deplorable incident, which took place in open seas and constitutes a flagrant breach of international law, may lead to irreparable consequences in our bilateral relations.... Israel will have to bear the consequences of this behaviour," it said.

President Abdullah Gul said Turkey was demanding that Israel "swiftly carry out all necessary inquiries on the issue and punish those responsible."

Israeli ambassador Gabby Levy was summoned to the foreign ministry as thousands took to the streets to protest the assault that came atop already deteriorating ties between the two former allies.

Turkey asked for a detailed report on the fate of all people who were aboard the vessels, a Turkish diplomat told AFP, adding that they included nationals from 33 countries.

Levy was also told that the Turkish passengers and the wounded should be repatriated to Turkey in the shortest possible time and the vessels released, he said.

Army chief Ilker Basbug cut short a visit to Egypt over the Israeli assault on the flotilla as well as a Kurdish rebel attack overnight on a Turkish navy base which left six soldiers dead, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Turkish police were put on high alert as some 10,000 people marched on Istanbul's central Taksim square from the Israeli consulate where they had converged after news of the raid broke.

"Damn Israel!", "A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye, revenge, revenge!" chanted the protestors, carrying Turkish and Palestinian flags, as they marched towards the square, an AFP photographer reported.

"Close down the Zionist embassy," read a banner carried by the crowd.

A crowd of some 500 people gathered outside Levy's residence in Ankara, shouting "Damn Israel" and reciting prayers.

The Israeli navy stormed the flotilla of six vessels as it sailed to Gaza in a bid to break the blockade of the impoverished enclave, in place since 2007, and deliver some 10,000 tonnes of supplies.

The Israeli army said more than 10 passengers were killed, while Turkish charity IHH, which was part of the campaign, said at least 15 people were dead, most of them Turks.

Israel's Channel 10 TV put the toll at 19 passengers killed and 36 wounded in the raid.

In Istanbul, an IHH statement said two volunteers had died and at least 30 people were wounded.

A senior IHH member said Israel had scrambled contact with the ships just before the attack, but they were still able to receive footage from the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara.

"The footage shows the wounded being gathered in the middle of the ship like a flock of sheep," Anatolia quoted Veysel Basar as saying.

"We received information that one person died of a bullet wound to the head and that another died after sustaining several bodily wounds. We have been unable to identify them," he said.

Women and a six-month-old baby were among the passengers, he added.

Muslim-majority Turkey has been a close ally of Israel since 1996 but relations between the two countries have taken a sharp downturn since Israel's devastating war on Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009, which Turkey has vehemently criticised.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100531/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_turkey