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The Grand Turk
Turkish Group Plans New Flotilla To Challenge Gaza Blockade
2014-08-12
[IsraelTimes] A Turkish aid group said on Monday it would send a new flotilla of ships to challenge Israel's naval blockade of Gazoo, four years after the deadly storming of one of its vessel by Israeli commandos.

The Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), which organized the first flotilla, said in a statement that activists from 12 countries had met in Istanbul and made the decision to send the ships "in the shadow of the latest Israeli aggression on Gazoo."

"As most governments are complicit, the responsibility falls on civil society to challenge the Israeli blockade on Gazoo," it said.

The IHH would hold a presser on Tuesday, it added. The group is considered to be close to the Turkish government.

Last month a Gulf Online report published in English by The Middle East Monitor claimed IHH chairman Bulent Yildrim had said that "Turkish army troops will accompany the ships to protect [them] from any potential attack."

In May 2010, the Mavi Marmara ferry was boarded by Israeli commandos as it attempted to break the naval blockade of the Gazoo Strip. In the ensuing melee, after the Israeli soldiers were attacked with iron bars and wooden bats, troops opened fire and nine Turkish activists were killed; 10 Israeli soldiers were maimed. Israel designates the IHH as a terrorist organization.

The incident triggered a crisis in relations between Israel and Turkey, which were already strained since Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gazoo in 2008-2009. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet...
 lashed out at then president Shimon Peres at the Davos Economic Forum, telling him: "When it comes to killing, you know very well how to kill. I know well how you hit and kill children on beaches."

Turkish-Israeli ties have yet to recover and they continue to be shaky, with Turkish officials often unleashing scathing criticism of Israel.
Apparently there's a great deal of quiet trade going on, nonetheless, and the Turkish entrepreneurial community would really like Israel's venture capitalists to check them out.
As part of an ongoing criminal trial brought by the IHH and the victims' families in 2012, a Turkish court in May ordered the arrest of four former Israeli military chiefs involved in the raid.

Talks on compensation began a year ago after Israel extended a formal apology to Turkey in a breakthrough brokered by US President Barack Obama
I am not a dictator!...
But they stalled after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who sees himself as a champion of the Paleostinian cause and is now the president-elect, stepped up his rhetoric against Israel in the wake of the IDF's recent Operation Protective Edge in Gazoo.
So they didn't get all the beautiful Jewish jizya as planned? Good.
Erdogan last week accused Israel of being "more barbaric than Hitler" during the military campaign, that it launched on July 8, aimed at stopping rocket fire from Gazoo at Israeli cities and destroying tunnels, dug under the border by Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, that were used by gunnies to infiltrate into Israel and carry out deadly attacks.
Posted by:trailing wife

#4  "knock knock knockin on ballast's door.."
Posted by: Frank G   2014-08-12 22:43  

#3  Have a diver knock a small hole or two in the larger boats hull before they leaves harbor

Methinks the French have experience with that.
Posted by: Pappy   2014-08-12 21:16  

#2  Have a diver knock a small hole or two in the larger boats hull before they leaves harbor. Delay the nonsense until the region stops burning at least. At that point a proper reaction to the flotilla might be obvious.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2014-08-12 14:40  

#1  The IHH for years has been the preferred charity and an arm of the international Muslim Brotherhood.
Posted by: Beldar Sloque3832   2014-08-12 13:20  

00:00