"No Israel, we're not taking Turkey back to the middle ages!"

Omer Celik is vice chairman of Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) and chairman of Foreign Affairs, in FP/ here

"... By ordering and defending the attack, the Netanyahu-Lieberman government has scored a moral low point, though perhaps not surprising given their support of an illegal and immoral continuation of the blockade of Gaza and the settlement activities in Palestinian territories. Efforts by the Obama administration, Europeans, and Arabs to stop the settlements have fallen on deaf ears in Israel. The destruction of Gaza at the end of 2008 resulting in the killing of more than 1,400 Palestinians remains a black stain in the history of Israeli occupation. By continuing the blockade of Gaza, the Israeli government has not only subjected 1.5 million residents of Gaza to an inhuman suffering, but also shown that it has no interest in peace. All reasonable parties around the world confirm that there will be no peace without including Gaza and Hamas in the process.

The flotilla raid and the killing of nine people -- eight of whom are Turkish citizens in addition to a U.S. citizen of Turkish origin -- has caused irreparable damage to Turkish-Israeli relations, which had already been under strain since the aforementioned Gaza war. Until that conflict, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had maintained good relations with successive Israeli governments with the hope of contributing to regional peace. Erdogan himself conducted the indirect Syrian-Israeli talks in 2008 and spent hours with Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister of Israel, at his residence. Yet only days after leaving Ankara, Olmert launched the war on Gaza without warning. In the time since, the Turkish government has taken a firm stance against the deteriorating situation in Gaza and Israeli manipulations of division between Palestinian groups.

Those who accuse our government and our ruling Justice and Development Party of harboring an anti-Israeli agenda should remember that it was our government that facilitated the talks between Israel and Syria. Some want us to forget who betrayed the trust that we had worked so hard to build between the parties. The same groups are now accusing us of secretly supporting the Gaza aid flotilla to "provoke" Israel into violent action. This is a typical example of propaganda and an attempt to cover up Israel's brutality and gross violation of international law and basic human decency. Instead of trying hopelessly to portray the aid flotilla as a radical group and accusing us of anti-Semitism, the Netenyahu-Lieberman government should instead explain to us and the world, if it can, this immoral and inhuman act. We fully know that the Israeli PR machine will now make baseless allegations against us, claiming that the Justice and Development Party is taking Turkey back to the Middle Ages, that it is turning Turkey away from the West, undermining secularism and establishing a religious republic. But such nonsense will be a waste of time because no one with a sound mind will believe them.

Instead, the Netenyahu-Lieberman government should come to terms with the reality that it has committed a terrible mistake, shed human blood, and isolated itself politically and morally. Israel must now formally apologize to Turkey, pay compensation to the injured and the families of the deceased, fully cooperate with international investigation, and lift the blockade in Gaza"

Posted by G, Z, or B at 6:52 AM