Turkey Rejects Payment, Apology for Terrorist Deaths

A Turkish terror group has called on Ankara to reject an Israeli offer of compensation for killing terrorists, and has also called on the government in Ankara to reject Israel’s plea for forgiveness for the attack on Israeli Navy Seals in 2010. 

Ugur Suleyman Soylemez, 59, died on Shabbat, becoming the tenth fatality of the poorly-advised attack by humanitarian activists as IDF sailors enforced Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. Soylemez was a member of Turkey’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), a terror group that had been en route to Gaza to provide Hamas terrorists with moral support and raw materials for the latters’ war against Israeli civilians. 

The deceased was part of a lynch mob that attacked with metal rods, knives and possibly guns as they boarded the ship the soldiers as they boarded the vessel, forcing the Israelis to lethal force to defend themselves. Following the incident, Turkey expelled Israel’s ambassador to Ankara and essentially froze once-close diplomatic relations. 

Since then, Israel has pleaded with Ankara to repair ties. Jerusalem offered an official apology for the incident last year, and has offered millions of dollars in “compensation” to the families of the Marmarra terrorists. But Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused the offers. Reports over the years have indicated that Israel and Turkey have agreed to settlement terms several times, but that Turkey has realised the bar for reconciliation at the last minute.