Turkey to cut ties with defiant Israel

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=133461§ionid=351020204



Turkey says it will sever diplomatic ties with Israel unless it apologizes over the attack on a Gaza aid convoy and the death of nine Turks in the deadly onslaught.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu renewed the call for a formal apology from Israeli leaders on Monday, saying his country's airspace will be closed to all Israeli military flights, AFP reported.

"Relations will be broken" unless Israel apologizes or accepts the conclusions of an international inquiry into the May 31 attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, the agency quote him as telling Monday's edition of the Hurriyet newspaper.

On May 31, Israeli navy commandos attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters as it was heading to the Palestinian territory to break Tel Aviv's years-long siege on the impoverished coastal sliver.

The attack killed eight Turkish activists and a Turkish-American teenage volunteer on board the six-vessel convoy and left some 50 others wounded.

Israel has managed to evade an international probe into the deadly attack despite repeated calls by Turkey and the rest of the international community and set up an internal inquiry with only two foreign observers.

However, Davutoglu said it would be sufficient if Israel's investigation commission "concludes that the raid was unjust and if they apologize insisting on Turkey's demand for compensation from Tel Aviv.

The remarks by the Turkish foreign minister comes days after Israel ruled out an apology over the lethal aid attack and defended the move as an act of "self-defense."

"Israel cannot apologize because its soldiers had to defend themselves to avoid being lynched by a crowd," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday.

But activists onboard the Freedom Flotilla have said the use of deadly force by the Israeli troops who stormed the Turkish-flagged vessel Mavi Marmara was totally unjustified.