Sounds like the dirty little deal between the US and Turkey reported last week - with the US offering Turkey a bigger role in mid-east 'peace talks' in return for putting pressure on the flotilla organisers to call off the mission - may have been done, although Turkey denies there is any such deal. Whatever back room fix they put in, the flotilla is still sailing to Gaza, and the Turkish government probably knows as much. Davutoğlu's timing isn't very good either, given that the Rafah crossing is again inoperative due to unnecessary Egyptian restrictions.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has advised organizers of a flotilla planning to depart for Gaza later this month to wait and see how Egypt's lifting its embargo of the Gaza Strip affects the Hamas-run coastal strip.
This is the first time Davutoğlu told flotilla organizers to reconsider their plans. He had so far rejected US and Israeli appeals to try to stop the flotilla, saying it is a civilian initiative that the government cannot intervene in and insisting that the international community should pressure Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza instead of trying to prevent the new flotilla. The Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH), a Turkish charity that played the lead role in a similar mission to Gaza last year, says a new flotilla will depart for Gaza at the end of June. Last year's mission turned bloody when Israeli commandos stormed a ship owned by İHH, the Mavi Marmara, and killed eight Turks and one Turkish American. more
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