Turkey suspends military agreements, downgrades mission in Israel
Turkey has downgraded its mission in Israel and suspended military agreements effective from yesterday as Israel failed to realise its charter of demands, including seeking apology for killing Turkish people.
Israel troops attacked and killed nine people, including eight Turkish, in the international waters of the Mediterranean on May 31 in 2010, against an international aid convoy in which hundreds of passengers from 32 countries participated to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza following Israel blockade.
“We have diplomatic relations with Israel since 1949, but now we have downgraded to the second secretary level,” said Turkish Ambassador in Dhaka Vakur Erkul at a press briefing at his embassy office at Baridhara in the city yesterday.
He said all personnel starting from ambassador to officials above second secretary level will come back to Turkey by yesterday. Israel has also been asked to withdraw its ambassador and officials above second secretary level within next three days, he added.
Vakur Erkul said Turkey took up the issue in UN and all other international communities for condemning the Israeli attack on unarmed civilian.
He said Turkey will take whatever measures it deems necessary to ensure freedom of navigation in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The ambassador said Israel should first seek apology for killing the innocent civilians and give adequate compensation to the deceased and also to those who were injured in the attack.
Israel will also have to abide by the 1967 boundary demarcation, withdraw blockade in Gaza and recognise East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine State, the ambassador said, adding “Our relations with Israel will not be normalised until those conditions are met.”
Criticising Israel government for not realising the situation, he said it is clear that the current Israel regime is incapable of seeing this simple reality and comprehending the consequence of huge changes taking place in the Middle East.
“Our aim is not to harm the historic Turkish-Jewish friendship, on the contrary, we aim to encourage the Israel government to correct this mistake that does not benefit this exceptional friendship,” he added.
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