Turkey’s foreign ministry summoned Israel’s ambassador on Saturday to complain about a comment a senior Israeli general had made criticizing Turkey. It was the latest development in a growing war of words between the two US allies.
After the meeting, Israel’s military issued a statement saying the remarks that Israeli Major General Avi Mizrahi had made on Tuesday did not reflect Israel’s official view.
Turkish officials were not immediately available for comment to respond to the Israeli military’s statement.
Turkey’s foreign ministry summoned Israeli Ambassador Gabby Levy to ask for an urgent explanation over comments that Mizrahi had made on Tuesday at a military base in Israel. Turkish media said Mizrahi had accused Turkey of killing Armenians in 1915 and of oppressing Kurds and occupying Cyprus.
Turkey has long been Israel’s closest ally in the Muslim world and it has worked hard to try to mediate for peace in the Middle East, along with Egypt and France.
Mizrahi’s remarks concerned very sensitive issues in Turkey and angered its government.
They apparently were made in response to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who had sharply reprimanded Israeli President Shimon Peres over civilian casualties during the Gaza war at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“While referring to the criticism of Israel by Turkey, General Mizrahi made statements that could be interpreted as criticism of Turkey’s past,” said a statement by Brigadier General Avi Benayahu, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). “The IDF spokesperson wishes to clarify that this is not the official position of the IDF.”
Turkey’s foreign ministry issued a statement calling Mizrahi’s remarks “baseless” and saying they contained “unacceptable allegations and ravings” and that they were “directed against our prime minister.”
Turkey’s Radikal newspaper reported on Saturday that Mizrahi also responded to Erdogan’s call that Israel should be barred from the UN by saying that Turkey should be barred as well.
The Turkish military said Mizrahi’s remarks “deviate from the truth and cannot be accepted under any condition” and “can harm national interests between the two countries,” underlining the importance relations between the two countries.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS