'We Have no Intention to Apologize to Turkey for Flotilla'

by JPost.com Staff


Israel has no intention of apologizing to the Turkish government over the events of the flotilla raid on May 31 which left nine Turkish passengers dead, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Wednesday during a speech to the Knesset.

Ayalon's remarks contradict an official statement from The Prime Minister's Office which said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyhau was working on improving relations with Ankara after Turkey offered help to extinguish the Carmel fires.

Ayalon responded to a series of proposals expressing the state's intention to compensate the families affected by the events of the raid.

"These proposals rely on newspaper reports. I am not responsible for these reports," Ayalon said.

MK Danny Danon (Likud) also on Wednesday sent Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a sarcastic letter of apology in which he asked for forgiveness that naval fighters used maximum restraint and killed only nine terrorists on board the Mavi Marmara aid ship.

He said that Israel knew that there were terrorists on board the ship and the instruction was to kill every person that endangered the life of the fighters.

Danon also asked for forgiveness that Israel did not check the passengers of the ship before it left Turkey and did not prevent them from arming themselves with live ammunition.

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Original URL: http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=199577

JPost.com Staff

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