Turkey closed its borders for Israeli airlines
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday that Turkey has closed airspace for Israeli planes, media reports from Ankara.Prime Minister Erdogan told journalists that were at the G20 summit in Toronto that Turkey has imposed restrictions following the intervention of an Israeli commando on international aid convoy to Gaza, on the 31th of May, which killed nine people, including eight Turkish citizens.
Erdogan did not mention if that decision concerns also the civilian flights. According to Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, Turkey did not allow to board a plane Sunday in which were Israeli military officers and which were about to attend a ceremony at Auschwitz in Poland. The plane, on which board were over 100 people had to find another route, according to Israeli publication. Following the Israeli operation at the end of last month, Turkey withdrew its ambassador and canceled military exercises with Israel. In addition, Turkey announced that it is considering reducing the military and commercial ties with Israel, stating that Turkey’s ambassador would return only after Israel will apologize for the incident of May 31. Turkey asked also Israel to repay seized the vessels were part of the “freedom flotilla”, to accept an international inquiry and to compensate victims of the last month attack.
On June 24, the daily Jerusalem Post Israeli officials submitted statements, which explained that Israel has imposed restrictions on sales of military equipment to Turkey, but will evaluate the participation of defense industry companies to tender because of growing tensions between the two countries. Israelini officials said that Israel is not currently interested in any tender from Turkey and defense industry companies can participate after receiving approval of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Jerusalem Post wrote earlier that Israel seeks other air training fields, including in Romania, after being excluded from the joint military exercises in Turkey.
Ministry of National Defence of Romania said on 10 June, at the request of NewsIn that the activities of bilateral military cooperation with Israel is conducted under an agreement signed in Bucharest on 29 May 2000. “The agreement was approved by Government Decision no. 841 of 21.09.2000 and is in force from 10.10.2000″, said the MND.
In an interview with the Toronto Star newspaper, Prime Minister Erdogan, who attended the G-20 Summit in Canadian city of Toronto, said, “the relations with Israel will remain strained until Israel fulfills four conditions: Israel should apologize for the May 31 commando raid on the Turkish ship that was part of the flotilla taking humanitarian aid to Gaza; it should pay compensation to the families of the 10 people killed in the raid, nine Turks and one Turkish-American; it should agree to an international probe, as called for by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon into the incident (as opposed to an Israeli inquiry); and it should lift its embargo on the Gaza Strip.”11
