Saturday, 19 June 2010

Erdogan: We have never been silent towards Israel's attack on Flotilla

[ 19/06/2010 - 08:40 AM ]

ANKARA, (PIC)-- Turkish premier Recep Erdogan said Friday that his country would continue to deal with Israel's deadly attack on Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla convoy and would never stay passive towards what happened.

Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as saying that some people expected Turkey to remain silent and forget Israel's piracy and state terrorism in the Mediterranean Sea, but this would not happen.

"We have not remained silent against this piracy and injustice, and we will not do so; we will seek solutions within the framework of international law," Erdogan said during a meeting of his justice and development party in Ankara.

In a related context, Human rights watch (HRW) stated on Thursday that the Israeli government has undermined the credibility of the committee appointed to investigate its deadly interception of Freedom Flotilla by preventing it from questioning Israeli soldiers or compelling the military to provide evidence.

It added that the Israeli government empowered the committee to request testimony or other evidence from any individual or entity, whether Israeli or foreign, except military or security personnel.

The organization also reiterated its criticism of Israel's blockade of Gaza as a form of mass punishment against the civilian population.

Israel should agree to international efforts to secure the immediate and sustained opening of border crossings for the flow of humanitarian aid as well as people and commercial goods in and out of Gaza, Human Rights Watch said.

For its part, the Haaretz newspaper reported Friday that the Knesset's committee on Foreign and defense affairs will discuss next Wednesday what it called the Armenian genocide, amid growing tension in the relations between Turkey and the Israeli occupation.

The newspaper said that this meeting will take place in the wake of Israel's killing of nine Turkish nationals during the attack on Freedom Flotilla convoy, noting that head of the committee Tzachi Hanegbi called for this meeting.

It pointed out that the Knesset was encouraged by the decision taken last March by the US congress' foreign affairs committee to label what happened to Armenians as genocide as well as the scathing attack launched on Wednesday by congressmen on Turkey for its relations with Hamas and Iran at the expense of its traditional ally Israel.

The congress adopted the resolution on the Armenians after considerable pressures made by the Zionist lobby in the US on its members.

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