Turkey is preparing to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza at the International Court of Justice, Turkish Minister of Foreign affairs Ahmet Davutoglu, ratcheting up tensions between the once close allies.
Davutoglu’s comments on Saturday came a day after Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador and severed military ties with the country, angered over its refusal to apologize for last year’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists.
In an interview with Turkey’s state-run TRT television, -Davutoglu dismissed a UN report into the raid that said Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza was a legal security measure. Davutoglu said the report — prepared by former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer and former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, and presented to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon — was not endorsed by the UN and was therefore not binding.
“What is binding is the International Court of Justice,” Davutoglu said. “This is what we are saying: ‘let the International Court of Justice decide,’” he said. “We are starting the necessary legal procedures this coming week.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defiantly refused yesterday to apologize to Turkey for the raid.
In his first public remarks since Turkey’s announcement on Friday, Netanyahu expressed Israel’s regret for the loss of lives in the raid and said he hoped to mend ties with Turkey.
Netanyahu said Israel, in trying to keep arms from reaching Gaza, had nothing to apologize for.
“We need not apologize for acting to defend our civilians, our children and our communities,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet and journalists.
He said Israel “expressed regret” over the deaths — a formula Turkey had already deemed to be an unacceptable substitute for an apology — and voiced hope the two countries would shore up their frayed ties.
“Israel never wanted ties with Turkey to deteriorate, and Israel does not now seek a deterioration of ties,” he said.
On Friday, Turkey downgraded its diplomatic ties with Israel to the level of second secretary and gave the ambassador and other high-level diplomats until Wednesday to leave the country.
In other measures against Israel, Turkey suspended military agreements, promised to back legal actions against Israel by the raid victims’ families and vowed to take steps to ensure freedom to navigate in the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkish officials refused to elaborate on their government’s latest move, but some analysts suggested Turkey could send navy vessels to escort aid ships in the future.
Turkey’s main opposition party on Friday warned that such a step could lead to confrontation between Turkish and Israeli forces.
Some Israeli officials think Turkey has decided that ties with Israel do not serve its interests as it seeks more influence in the Muslim world, and that an Israeli apology would have done nothing to change that.
However, military commentator Alex Fishman wrote in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper that treating ties with Turkey as a “lost cause” because of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policies was a mistake.
Relations with Turkey have “a significance that we must not take lightly,” Fishman wrote.
“There is a long way to go on the scale between hostile neutrality — the situation today — and direct conflict,” he wrote.
The UN report released on Friday called the raid on May 31 last year “excessive and unreasonable.” The UN panel also blamed Turkey and flotilla organizers for contributing to the deaths.
Israel insists its forces acted in self-defense and says there will be no apology. Israeli officials pointed out that the report does not demand an apology. Rather, it says “an appropriate statement of regret should be made by Israel in respect of the incident in light of its consequences.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in