Turkey to take Israel to UN court over Gaza blockade following Israel’s refusal to apologize for flotilla raid

Israel’s deputy foreign minister observed that Turkey seems to want to raise tensions for its own reasons. Indeed, relations have deteriorated to a point where it will be difficult ever to trust Turkey as an ally again — it is rather more of a “frenemy,” at best. More on the Tantrum in Turkey. “Gaza flotilla: Turkey to take Israel to UN court,” from BBC News, September 3:

Turkey has said it will challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

It is the latest sign of strain between the countries since last year’s Israeli action against ships heading for Gaza, in which nine Turks were killed.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu said Turkey did not accept the findings of a UN report which said Israel’s blockade of Gaza was a legal security measure.

His comments came a day after Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador.

It also halted military co-operation with Israel.

Report ‘not endorsed’

Speaking on state-run Turkish TV, Mr Davutoglu said the UN report, prepared by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, had not been endorsed by the UN and was therefore not binding.

“What is binding is the ICJ,” he went on. “This is what we are saying: let the ICJ decide.”

Turkey, he added, would start the necessary legal procedures in the coming week.

Based in The Hague, the ICJ is a permanent UN court set up to rule on state-to-state disputes.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon insisted his country had nothing to apologise for and had done all it could to avoid a crisis with Turkey.

He said the Turks seemed to want to raise tensions with Israel for its own reasons.

They were not ready for a compromise and kept raising the threshold,” Mr Ayalon said on Israeli TV….

Yasser Arafat would be so proud.

Posted by Marisol on September 3, 2011 7:07 PM

Posted in:  Jihad Watch