Turkish fury at Israel threatens to spill over into its ties with the West, notes Gareth Jenkins in Ankara Turkey was left mulling its options last week as the repercussions of the brutal Israeli assault on the Turkish-led aid flotilla threatened to severely damage not only Ankara's relationship with the Tel Aviv but also its relationship with the US. Turkey last week threatened to cancel all of its bilateral agreements with Israel and downgrade its diplomatic relations amid continuing public fury at the brutal Israeli assault on the Freedom Flotilla carrying aid to the Palestinians of Gaza. In the early hours of Thursday morning, three Turkish Airlines planes carrying the survivors of the Israeli assault landed at Istanbul airport to be greeted by thousands of relatives and supporters, many of them wearing Palestinian scarves and chanting Allah Akbar. But officials from the Human Rights and Freedoms (IHH) charity which owns the Mavi Marmara refused to allow any of the ship's passengers to be reunited with their families until they had been examined by doctors from the Forensic Medicine department of the Turkish Justice Ministry. "We want to make sure that we have documented proof of any torture or ill-treatment," said IHH Board Member Kemal Ozdal. "We realise that it is difficult for those waiting to see their loved ones. But we want to be certain that we do everything within the framework of the law." On Thursday funeral ceremonies were held in Istanbul for the nine Turks who had been killed when Israeli commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, the flagship of the aid flotilla. Turkish prosecutors have already begun gathering evidence for use in a possible criminal case against Israel. On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu repeated his earlier warnings that Turkey would insist that Israel was held accountable for what he described as "an act of piracy". "We will not allow any country to knowingly and deliberately harm our citizens," declared Davutoglu. "Everybody who does so will be held accountable." Inside Turkey, the killings have created an unprecedented outpouring of anti-Israeli sentiments. "God created all of us," said Ahmet, the owner of a small honey shop on the Asian side of Istanbul. "It doesn't make any difference where people are from or what religion they have. I respect all of them because they are all humans just like me. Everybody except Israelis, of course. How can you call them human after the way they slaughtered people on that boat?" On Monday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan once again bitterly denounced Israel. "If there is hatred in the Mediterranean, it is Israeli hatred," he said. "If there is terrorism in the Mediterranean, it is Israeli state terrorism." But such denunciations are unlikely to satisfy the Turkish public, many of who want to see their government go beyond words and take action. On Monday, Davutoglu told Turkish journalists that the government was examining every option. "What happens next is up to Israel," said Davutoglu. "If Israel begins to act according to international law and gives the green light to the proposal by the UN to establish an international commission and is prepared to answer any questions put by the commission, then relations between Turkey and Israel will be able to continue. But if they keep avoiding these things then it is impossible to talk of any normalisation of Turkish-Israeli ties." But the problem for Turkey is that, although the majority of the international community vigorously condemned the Israeli raid, few countries have been prepared to support any sanctions against Israel. Eyewitness accounts also suggest a contrast between actions of the majority of peaceful protesters onboard the ships and the attitudes of a small minority. "My brother joined the flotilla hoping to become a martyr and he achieved his aim," said a relative of one of those killed at his funeral in Istanbul. "There is no excuse for what the Israelis did. They were brutal and the firing was indiscriminate," said one international activist on board one of the ships after arriving in Istanbul last week. "But there is no doubt that a small proportion of the young Turkish males onboard the Mavi Marmara were looking for a fight. The first two Israeli soldiers who boarded the ship were disarmed and placed under guard, not so much to prevent them from escaping but to protect them against the handful of hardliners among the passengers who could have harmed them." Although such statements fall far short of providing any justification for the brutality of the Israeli assault, they have made it much harder for Turkey to demand that the international community takes punitive action against Israel. The danger now for the Turkish government is that its demands for action against Israel may further strain its already tense relations with the West, particularly with the US. Privately, Turkish officials are furious that Washington has limited itself to only muted criticism of the Israeli raid and frustrated that meetings of both the UN Security Council and NATO failed to produce the strong condemnation that Turkey had hoped for. Unless there is a change, over the weeks ahead attention is likely to shift from the damage that the raid on the flotilla has done to Turkey's ties with Israel to the repercussions for Turkey's relationship with the West, particularly the US.
