Turkey has issued arrest warrants for four retired Israeli military leaders, according to Haaretz, after a prosecutor filed an indictment seeking sentences of life plus 18,000 years (!) for their roles in the 2010 attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
The four officers – former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin, former commander of the navy Eliezer Marom, and former head of air force intelligence Avishai Levi – are now subject to arrest if they set foot in Turkey. The Turkish government could also ask Interpol to issue a so-called “red notice” for the four, in which case they could be arrested any time they visit any of Interpol’s 190 member countries.
The indictment accuses the Israeli officers of giving orders for the May 30, 2010, raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, during which Israeli commandos killed eight Turkish citizens and Furkan Dogan, a 19-year-old American of Turkish descent. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told state television Wednesday that the legal process should be seen as an example of his “government’s determination to defend the rights of Turkish citizens,” according to the Associated Press.
It remains to be seen, though, whether the Turkish authorities will really see the case through. The AP, citing Turkey’s state-run news agency Anadolu, says an Istanbul court has 15 days to decide whether to accept the indictment. Haaretz says its Turkish sources report – surprise! – that “Washington is applying heavy pressure on Ankara to get the Istanbul prosecutor to reject the indictment.”
Haaretz says some of its sources “speculated that Ankara might be planning to use the indictment as a means of pressuring the U.S. Congress to approve the sale of armed American Predator drones to Turkey.” The Obama administration has approved the sale, but Congress has been holding it up, mainly due to anger at Turkey’s hostile policy toward Israel, according to Haaretz,
The indictment, prepared by prosecutor Mehmet Akif Ekinci, seeks 10 “consecutive life sentences” – one for each death plus one for a victim of the Israeli assault who remains in a coma – for each of the indictees on charges of voluntary manslaughter. Additional charges of attempted voluntary manslaughter, intentional injury, incitement to assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, abduction or confiscation of maritime vessels, property damage, false arrest and maltreatment of prisoners could subject each of the high-ranking officers to further sentences of 18,000 years in prison.
The 144-page indictment is reportedly based on testimony from 600 people, including 490 passengers on the Mavi Marmara, as well as relatives of those killed.
While Turkey stands up for its citizens against Israel, the US does not: http://archive.truthout.org/un-fact-finding-mission-says-israelis-executed-us-citizen-furkan-dogan63609
You can say that the US government kicks their own citizens to the curb, or under the bus, whenever it thinks Israel wants it to do so. I’m sure you are thinking of three more fairly recent young examples, at least, including one Jewish American young lady. After all, dating back to 1967, our government has a track record of this: USS Liberty
“Haaretz says its Turkish sources report – surprise! – that ‘Washington is applying heavy pressure on Ankara to get the Istanbul prosecutor to reject the indictment.'”
“The Obama administration has approved the sale, but Congress has been holding it up, mainly due to anger at Turkey’s hostile policy toward Israel”
Boy that really pisses me off that Israel and its fifth column in the US have such an Alien-facehugger grip on the US government that it is willing to destroy good relations with a NATO ally for a bunch of fascist ingrates.
We may now be witnessing the sort of pressure that the USA exerts to prevent other countries from doing what I call nation-state-BDS, that is, boycotts and sanctions at governmental level. I’d hoped that Turkey would be a leader in such an effort, but no sign of it
why wasn’t israeli prime minister netanyahu on the turkish prosecutor’s list? after all he must have been in on the decision to attack the mavi marmara.
I wonder whether the Turkish prosecutor is aware of the case of Ziad Jilani, the Palestinian murdered by the Israeli cop Maxim Vinogradov. The killing took place on June 11, 2010, just 12 days after the attack on the flotilla, and if you look closely at the killer’s Facebook posts posted here on MW the other day, you’ll notice that there’s a clear connection between the flotilla incident and Vinogradov’s murderous motivation: on May 31, the day immediately following the assault on the flotilla, his buddy Avi writes “Annihilate Turkey and all the Arabs from the world,” to which Vinogradov responds “I am with you, brother, and with the help of God I will start this :)”
Given all that, I think the Turkish prosecutor should add another life sentence or at least another few thousand years to his recommended sentence for the Israeli generals.