Erdogan: Israel cannot be trusted
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s aggressive rhetoric towards Israel continued Saturday, this time in an interview given to CNN.
Erdogan spoke about severing ties with Israel in the wake on the UN’s Palmer Report – which probed the 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla – and said that “for the time being I can clearly state that the relations between Israel and Turkey have been broken on the basis of an issue… which began when a flotilla bearing humanitarian aid was trying to get to Gaza.“It had passengers from 33 countries and was attacked both from the sea and from the air. At the end of these attacks, nine Turkish citizens died… Still, to this day, no serious attitude has been adopted against Israel for the lives lost there. We are very upset about this.
“It this situation, no matter who we are talking about, democracy, rights and freedom, should be defended,” he continued. “If liberty is in question in should be defended. We gave our warning to Israel – this is reason for war. This is something you cannot do in international waters. But as a great state we have been very forgiving.
“That’s why we have been very patient. We demanded that they apologize, pay compensation and eliminate the embargo on Gaza once and for all. If these demands are not met relations between Israel and Turkey will never become normal again.