TURKEY - Israel Excessive?

"Turkey expels Israeli ambassador over flotilla incident" by Joel Greenberg, Washington Post 9/2/2011

Turkey said Friday that it would expel the Israeli ambassador and suspend military agreements with Israel, signaling a deepening rift between the former strategic allies in the aftermath of last year’s deadly raid on a Turkish ship leading an aid flotilla to Gaza.

The Turkish move came hours ahead of the formal publication of a United Nations report that found that while Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip was legal, it had used “excessive and unreasonable” force when its commandos boarded a Turkish ship and killed nine people in clashes with activists 18 months ago.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference in Ankara that the government was downgrading its ties with Israel “to the second secretary level.” He said the Israeli ambassador and other senior diplomats would be sent home by Wednesday.

The ambassador, Gabby Levy, who is currently in Israel, cancelled plans to return to Turkey, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said. He added that high-level consultations were underway on how to respond to the Turkish move.

Israel and Turkey had developed extensive military ties in the past decade, providing Israel with a key alliance with a Muslim nation that eased its isolation in the largely Arab Middle East.

Turkey, for its part, gained access to advanced Israeli military technology. Israel supplied hundreds of millions of dollars in military hardware to Turkey, the two countries conducted joint naval exercises and the Israeli air force trained in Turkish airspace.

After the flotilla incident, in May 2010, Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel, suspended joint military exercises and barred Israeli military aircraft from Turkish airspace.

Davutoglu went a step further on Friday, saying that “all military agreements have been suspended.”

“The time has come for Israel to pay for its stance that sees it above international laws and disregards human conscience,” he said, according to the Associated Press.

Israel has rejected a Turkish demand for an apology and payment of compensation to families of the people killed in the flotilla raid, despite heavy pressure from Washington, which is concerned about the divide between two of its key allies in the Middle East.

Turkey had made the apology a condition for improving diplomatic ties, and set the date of the release of the U.N. report as a deadline for the Israeli response.

The U.N. report urges Israel to express “regret” over the killings and offer compensation payments, and it asks Turkey and Israel to resume full diplomatic relations and repair their relationship.