ISTANBUL: A Turkish court issued arrest warrants yesterday for four former Israeli military commanders on trial in absentia over the 2010 killing of nine Turks on a Gaza-bound aid ship, Turkish media reports said.
The move came after months of negotiations between Turkey and Israel to end a diplomatic crisis over the Israeli commando raid in 2010 on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship challenging Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave run by the Hamas Islamist group.
Eight Turks and a Turkish-American were killed in the operation. A Turkish man, Suleyman Ugur Soylemez, died in hospital on Friday after four years in a coma since the raid.
The Turkish court ordered the arrest of former Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, ex-Navy Commander Eliezer Marom, ex-Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin and ex-head of Air Force intelligence Avishay Levi, the newspaper Hurriyet said on its website.
Yadlin, in a text message, shrugged off the court’s decision.
“I won’t be visiting Turkey, just like I won’t be visiting Syria, Iran or North Korea,” he said.
Turkish prosecutors have already sought multiple life sentences for the now-retired Israeli officers over their involvement in the killings.
Among the charges listed in the 144-page indictment are “inciting murder through cruelty or torture” and “inciting injury with firearms”.
Israel has dismissed the proceedings as a political show trial.
Although the indictment was handed down in 2012, no arrest warrants were issued then. The court said yesterday it would seek the issue of Interpol “red notices” for the arrest of the four former generals.
A Turkish relief agency said on Thursday it would oppose what it said was an imminent Israeli offer to pay compensation in return for dropping lawsuits over the attack.
A former Israeli official involved in efforts to reach a compensation deal, said the latest Turkish legal move would make achieving an agreement more difficult.
REUTERS
