2 September 2011, Hürriyet Daily News http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com (Turkey)
Sevil Küçükkoşum
The collapse of a last-minute deal pushed by Washington brings Turkey and Israel closer to a breaking point over the Mavi Marmara raid, with Ankara effectively expelling the Israeli ambassador and warning of harsher measures ahead
Turkey downgraded diplomatic ties with Israel to second-secretary level on Friday, effectively expelling the Israeli ambassador and senior diplomats over Israel’s failure to apologize for killing nine Turks in a raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship last year. Ankara announced five steps in protest, warning that more measures could follow.
“Diplomatic relations with Israel have been reduced to a second-secretary level. All personnel above the second-secretary level, primarily the ambassador, will return to their countries by Wednesday at the latest,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told at a press conference on Friday.
Ankara moved to make the announcement shortly after a long-awaited U.N. report on the Mavi Marmara raid was leaked to U.S. media on Thursday. Ankara believes the report was leaked by the hawkish wing of the Israeli coalition government in a bid to limit the room for maneuvering on both sides on a possible reconciliation deal involving an Israeli apology.
The downgrading of diplomatic ties was the first among five measures that Davutoğlu announced in response to Israel’s failure to apologize for the raid and compensate the victims’ families, which Ankara sought as a condition for normalizing bilateral ties.
Israeli Ambassador to Turkey Gaby Levy, whose term in Ankara was set to expire in mid-September, was already in Israel and will not return to Turkey. Ankara had already recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv immediately after the raid on the Mavi Marmara on May 31, 2010, and other senior Turkish diplomats will return to Turkey by Wednesday.
Turkey previously downgraded diplomatic ties with Israel to second-secretary level in November 1980 after the Jewish state proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital. The chilly period continued until December 1991, when progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks prompted Ankara to appoint ambassadors to both sides.
Secondly, Minister Davutoğlu said all military agreements with Israel have been suspended. Last year, Turkey had already effectively suspended military agreements and military exercises with Israel, and Ankara barred Israeli military aircraft from using Turkish airspace. Turkey went a step further Friday by officially announcing that it has suspended all existing military pacts.
Turkey and Israel signed a landmark military cooperation accord in 1996, much to the ire of Arab countries and Iran, marking the outset of what was called “a strategic partnership.” In the first major projects after the accord, Israeli companies were awarded contracts worth $700 million to modernize 100 Turkish F-4 and F-5 fighter jets and sold Turkey rockets and electronic equipment.
Ankara, for its part, offered an opportunity for Israel’s air force to train in a vast airspace unavailable in its own country, as part of joint drills in central Turkey. The two armies also held joint naval exercises in the Mediterranean. Turkey is also said to have allowed Israel access to its radars in monitoring Iranian and Iraqi air space, while other deals involved the exchange of military students and expertise on chemical weapons protection.
Davutoğlu also said Turkey would take every precaution it considers necessary for the safety of maritime navigation in the East Mediterranean, as the country with the longest coastline there. Turkey’s military presence in the East Mediterranean is expected to be boosted in the upcoming days. The move could be considered as a manifestation of Turkey’s position rejecting Gaza’s blockade, a Turkish diplomat said.
Davutoğlu said Turkey did not recognize Israel’s right to blockade Gaza and intended to ask the International Court of Justice in The Hague to examine the blockade as it stood on May 31, 2010. “For this aim, we are starting initiatives to put the U.N. General Assembly in motion [on the issue],” he said. The move suggests Ankara will seek collective action at the U.N. to apply to the International Court of Justice in a bid to secure a legal deliberation on the legitimacy of the blockade.
Lastly, Davutoğlu said Turkey would support legal action by the families of Turkish and foreign victims in the Mavi Marmara raid. Turkish nationals can seek justice in local courts first. One of the nine dead was a U.S. citizen of Turkish origin and his family has already started legal action in U.S. courts.
The measures, Davutoğlu said, were a response to the attitudes of the current Israeli government, and did not target the Israeli people.
“Our aim is not to harm the historical Turkish-Jewish friendship, but on the contrary, to urge the Israeli government to correct their mistake that does not befit this exceptional friendship,” Davutoğlu said. “No state is above the law, and the time has come for Israel to pay a price for its illegal actions. This price, first of all, is being deprived of Turkey’s friendship.”
He said Turkish and Israeli officials held four rounds of talks to reconcile their differences and reached a consensus on two draft texts, which were also approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But the agreements failed due to a split in the Israeli Cabinet, he said.
Referring to the Palmer Commission report and its leak to the press, Davutoğlu said: “We are determined to take this issue to the relevant international legal authorities.”
Although the report has yet to be released officially, President Abdullah Gül said Turkey regarded it as “null and void.” Gül warned of further measures targeting Israel “depending on how things will develop and how Israel will behave.”
He warned the Israeli government, branding it “a burden even for its own people” and charging that it had fallen “into a position deprived of any strategy” in the Middle East.
“There are steps Israel must take for peace and security in the region. If they fail to comprehend this by themselves, we hope their allies will tell them in a way they understand,” Gül said.
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