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: link to archive.truthout.org
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
Never thought I’d say this but …forget using the Law to get Israel and the Zionist and the Neocons.
You’re going to have to use the same tactics they use against others to get rid of them.
And you are going to have to “completely” wipe them out of the US government, destroy them and bury them, and I don’t care how it’s done.
Because this what they have done and there are no rules of Law any more.
May 6, 2002: US Withdraws from International Criminal Court Statute
The Bush administration formally withdraws the United States from the International Criminal Court (ICC). In a letter to Secretary-General of the UN Kofi Annan, US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton writes: “This is to inform you, in connection with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court adopted on July 17, 1998, that the United States does not intend to become a party to the treaty. Accordingly, the United States has no legal obligations arising from its signature on December 31, 2000. The United States requests that its intention not to become a party, as expressed in this letter, be reflected in the depositary’s status lists relating to this treaty.” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says, “The United States will regard as illegitimate any attempt by the court or state parties to the treaty to assert the ICC’s jurisdiction over American citizens.” The ICC dates back to the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, and serves as the world’s first and most influential war crimes tribunal. The US did not become a signatory until former President Bill Clinton’s last day in office. [US Department of State, 5/6/2002; New York Times, 5/7/2002; American Forces Press Service, 5/7/2002; Carter, 2004, pp. 278; Organizations Coalition for the International Criminal Court, 1/2/2006] Bolton’s letter serves to both withdraw the US from the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, and relieves the US of its obligations under the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. That agreement prohibits the signatories of international treaties from taking steps to undermine the treaties they sign, even if they have not ratified them. [New York Times, 5/7/2002
“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.
@Woody
I keep waiting for that anger to be widespread and boil over into the realm of action. Perhaps we are reaching the tipping point since people can no longer claim that they were ignorant of what is happening, given the recent coverage in the MSM.
Here’s hoping.
“I keep waiting for that anger to be widespread and boil over into the realm of action.” …. CloakandDagger
Give it time….would bet my right arm Israel will push us to that tipping point…bound to happen.
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
It’s a sign of change. Maybe the Turks will back down this time but Israel is only going to get worse and the US will only get weaker. 10 years ago turkey wouldn’t have dared something like this.
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.
Netanyahu is in another class: Indicted not for one, albeit monstrous, act of piracy, but for the Nurnberg crimes against humanity in different jurisdictions, like Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz etc. As long as no one is ready to risk one’s life trying to effect a citizen arrest and we the retarded Americans bribe all governments to ignore the indictments, he’ll travel…
The advantage with the Turkish indictments of subalterns is that they cannot just be filed away as some general attack against a head of state; they are solidly documented by postive proof of their direct guilt, so that any action to enforce them will have in theory to be supported on the basis of international police regulations.
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.
Something else the Turkish prosecutor should consider is the PKK Kurdish rebel attack on the Turkish naval base in İskenderun, near the Syrian border, an attack that resulted in the death of eight Turkish sailors. Considering that that attack occurred two hours before the Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla, that any Turkish naval assistance to the flotilla would have had to come from the İskenderun base, and that there have been repeated reports of Israelis working with Kurds, including the PKK, it’s hard to believe the attack was not coordinated with the Israelis.
“it’s hard to believe the attack was not coordinated with the Israelis.”
Of course it was. It was an attack on our NATO ally by the israelis. The fact that the US sides with these criminal ingrates over our NATO allies (and an attack on Turkey like that carried out by israel’s proxy is SUPPOSED to be an attack on the USA. But who does our zionist-puppet government support, even after it murdered an American citizen in cold blood???)
The last sentence should have read that the fact that the US sides with the attackers of our NATO allies, rather than our ally, should be a warning to all “allies” of the US.
Well, looky here folks! Compensation, at the 11th hour (well, story time stamp is just after 11pm!)
link to guardian.co.uk
£4m paid to a Jewish foundation in Turkey, which will disburse it to victims and their families!
Isn’t it a disgustingly pitiful amount! There really ought to be a couple of zeros at least after that number, to compenesate fatherless families, wounded, kidnapped, unlawfully imprisoned, humiliated, stolen from participants. And only a “note of regret” to accompany this little bit of Israel’s loose change.
Well whaddya know, the mob coughed up some hush money
I doubt if Turkey will back down without an official apology.
“sentences of life plus 18,000 years”
With maybe a couple of years off for good behaviour?
The turks waited long enough, however now that they made the first step, I hope they will not back down due to a “request” from Washington.
They should involve the Intepol, in that case those individuals can never leave Israel without being arrested. I miss the names of a few major politicians.