Turkish Denial About Official Ties to Flotilla Sinks

Tamar Sternthal
CAMERA/Snapshots
13 June '10

On CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu insisted:

And, again, let me underline, this freedom flotilla was absolutely an NGO activity. As the Turkish government, we didn't encourage them, but it was a civilian activity. We are a democratic society. We cannot stop any protester, even in the streets of Istanbul.

So, it is absolutely an NGO activity. It was a civilian and international activity. Therefore, we cannot say anything against them.

Yet, as the Jerusalem Post reports:

"[The] IHH acquired the Mavi Marmara ship from the AKP-run municipality of Istanbul. It is not conceivable that the IHH’s Gaza operation could have been carried out absent high-level government sanction," wrote Svante Cornell, a Swedish security expert who specializes in Eurasia, in an article published on Monday.

A journalist on-board the Mavi Marmara, described as having good links with the heads of the Turkish government and Bulent Yildirim, head of the IHH, had stated, "The flotilla was organized with the support of the Turkish government and Prime Minister Erdogan gave the instructions for it to set sail. That was despite the fact that everyone knew it would never reach its destination," according to the report.

For more on Turkish governmental links to the IHH, see here.

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