The Forum of Seven senior ministers on Monday decided that Israel must accept the United Nations’ proposal to establish an international panel of inquiry into its deadly naval raid on a humanitarian aid ship bound for the Gaza Strip.

This is the first time Israel has ever agreed to participate in a United Nations probe regarding the Israel Defense Forces. It is also the first time Israel will be represented on a UN committee dealing with its activities.

The panel will investigate the events of the Israel Navy’s May 31 commando raid of a six-ship flotilla, which left nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists dead. Israel had balked at the UN request, but has faced international pressure to allow for an external probe into the matter.

The Forum of Seven ruled that it would give UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon a positive response, in principle, to allow him to move forward with establishing the panel of inquiry. Simultaneously, negotiations will continue regarding who will comprise the committee and the composition of its mandate.

Ban has suggested forming a review panel before establishing the officials committee, to look into the investigations already carried out by Israel and Turkey into the incident. This means that the official panel will only begin its work once the two countries have completed their missions.

According to Ban’s proposal, the review panel would be headed by former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, while his deputy would be outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

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Turkey has closed its airspace to Israeli military flights following a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, the Turkish prime minister and officials said Monday.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters in Toronto that Turkey imposed the ban after the May 31 raid on a Turkish ship that was part of a six-vessel international aid flotilla, according to Anatolia news agency. The prime minister, who is in Canada to attend a summit of the Group of 20 major industrial and developing nations, did not elaborate.

On Sunday, Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported that Turkey had not allowed a plane carrying Israeli military officers, en route to a tour of memorial sites in Auschwitz, Poland, to fly over Turkish airspace.

The transport plane, with more than 100 commissioned and noncommissioned officers on board, was forced to make a detour, the paper said.

The Israeli military “refrained from responding officially to the event so not to exacerbate the rift in relations,” the newspaper added.

A Turkish government official said the ban was for Israeli military flights and that commercial flights were not affected. It was not a blanket ban and each flight request would be assessed case-by-case, the official added. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with government rules that bar officials from speaking to journalists without prior authorization.

The Israeli prime minister’s office had no comment on Erdogan’s statements.

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Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has issued a declaration in response to a recent UN Security Council resolution against the country.

In the name of God, the most Gracious and the Merciful

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Declaration in Response to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929

The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1929 on 9 June 2010. Contrary to the expectation of the international community that the new UNSC resolution would condemn Israel’s attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla less than ten days before the adoption of the Resolution, the international community saw once again the United States defending the Zionist regime and thus preventing the Security Council from taking any action against the atrocities The Resolution also ignored the final declaration of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference that was adopted just 15 days earlier by 189 countries. This declaration required the Zionist regime to abide by the NPT. But the international community had not seen a single UNSC resolution condemning the nuclear activities of the Zionist regime. Nor has the Council shown any intention of finding out who has provided nuclear weapons to the Zionist regime.

The reason is clear. Some of the permanent members of the Security Council are principal suspects of this proliferation. The subject of Resolution 1929 is not about the concern over production, manufacturing, proliferation or testing of a new generation of nuclear weapons by permanent members of the Security Council. Also there is no reference to 11 proposals by the Islamic Republic of Iran during the NPT Review Conference concerning disarmament and non-proliferation; the same proposals that received a warm response by the international community. The subject of the Resolution, contrary to all expectations, is the peaceful nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which have been demonized on the basis of false accusation that accusations that have not been proven. On the contrary, the last report by the Director General of the IAEA, published only a day before the Resolution, reiterated for the 22nd time that our activities have not diverted from their peaceful objectives.

Those behind the adoption of this Resolution are exposing themselves to the judgment of the international community under circumstances that the world witnessed adoption of Tehran declaration. This was a declaration that openly and clearly called for peaceful nuclear cooperation without any confrontation with regards to the rights of sovereign nations. The United States encouraged Brazil and Turkey to interact with Iran. This is while one month after the adoption of the Tehran declaration, it was welcomed by the 120 members of the Non-Aligned Movement.

The adoption of Resolution 1929 irrespective of the Tehran declaration and the attack on Gaza Freedom Flotilla has proven the righteousness of the viewpoints of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Read the full declaration here.

Turkey’s reaction to Israel for its attack on a Gaza aid flotilla that killed nine Turks on Monday is not strong enough according to a majority of Turkish citizens, according to a survey released Friday.

According to research by the MetroPOLL Research Company among 1,000 people, 60 percent of respondents said Turkey should have shown a stronger reaction to Israel, whereas 33 percent said the reaction was right on point.

Around 45 percent of respondents said the real reason behind the Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla was to put Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a hard situation in the domestic and global arena. However, 33 percent of respondents said Israel’s aim was to prevent the breaking of the blockade on Gaza.

The survey was conducted in 31 different provinces around Turkey on Thursday.

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Turkey’s prime minister on Tuesday said Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid vessel that killed several people was a “bloody massacre.”

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in Parliament that “no one should test Turkey’s patience.”

Israeli commandos on Monday killed several pro-Palestinian activists after raiding humanitarian aid ships that were en route to the Gaza Strip. The largest ship in the flotilla was the Turkish Mavi Marmara, with around 600 people on board.

Erdoğan on Tuesday also recalled his confrontation with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the Davos summit in January 2009. In a memorable outburst, Erdoğan stormed out of the debate after telling Peres: “You know well how to kill people.”

“Before this, I told them face-to-face, ‘You know how to murder,’” Erdoğan said Tuesday, “and the recent attack proves it true.”

He said Turkey’s hostility was as “strong as its friendship is valuable,” The Associated Press reported.

Erdoğan said the Israeli action was an attack “on international law, the conscience of humanity and world peace.”

He called on Israel to immediately end the “inhumane” blockade on Gaza.

“Israel in no way can legitimize this murder, it cannot wash its hand of this blood,” Erdoğan said, adding that Turkey would continue to support the Palestinian people.

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Mossad Chief Meir Dagan said on Tuesday that Israel is progressively becoming a burden on the United States.

“Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden,” said Dagan, speaking before the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Dagan said that the U.S. government has recently examined the possibility of coercing a settlement on Israel and the Palestinians, but retreated from the idea after realizing it would not lead to a peace agreement.

Meanwhile, a senior Israel Defense Forces officer also spoke at the committee meeting on Tuesday, explaining the details of the IDF’s operation on the Gaza flotilla on Monday.

He said that the army had decided against sabotaging a ship in the Gaza flotilla at the center of Monday’s deadly clashes, out of fear that the vessel would be stranded in the middle of the ocean and at risk of a humanitarian crisis.

The flotilla, carrying tons of aid, had set sail from Turkey on Sunday, with the intention of breaking Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip. Israel said Monday that it had repeatedly asked the convoy to turn back, and offered to deliver the aid via land, both of which were rejected by the convoy. Israel Navy troops boarded five of the six ships without incident before dawn Monday, but clashes erupted on the sixth boat, and nine passengers were killed.

During his briefing on the operation to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Colonel Itzik Turgeman hinted that the IDF had sabotaged the engines of the other five ships, saying that “they took care of them.”

He also noted that soldiers found pistols in the hands of two of the activists who were killed, along with empty casings.

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France will host Euro 2016 after finishing ahead of close rivals Turkey and rank outsiders Italy in a UEFA vote on Friday.

France President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared at the ceremony to support his country’s bid as the French, who have also hosted two World Cups, were awarded the tournament for the third time.

Turkey were bidding to host their first major football tournament while Italy’s chances had been written off after a critical review of their bid following UEFA’s inspection visits.

Problems and delays in Poland and Ukraine, who will jointly host Euro 2012, may have persuaded UEFA’s executive committee to avoid choosing Turkey, an untried country.

The Turkish government had promised to invest one billion euros ($1.23 billion) all in public money, in stadiums for the event. It would also need to spend an estimated 20 billion euros on national transport infrastructure, including high speed trains.

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Taner Baytok, retired ambassador and former Defense Ministry consultant, claimed that the U.S. has tactical nuclear weapons in Istanbul, reports Turkish daily Hürriyet.

According to Baytok, the approximately 100 tactical nuclear weapons are not at the U.S.’s İncirlik Base in Adana as believed but in Istanbul, the most populated city of Turkey.

Baytok explained the difference between strategic and tactical weapons: Strategic ones are continent-to-continent class and they are mostly stored on American soil. The tactical ones were placed during the Cold War, which would be fired to the Iron Curtain countries first as they are attached to faster missiles with shorter ranges. Baytok said some of these weapons are in Istanbul and in some other cities near the Black Sea.

The weapons are fired with a double-key system, said Baytok. “One of the keys is in the U.S. and the other in the host country, in this case Turkey. During war time these weapons are fired with this double-key system.”

Baytok also said the SALT and START pacts signed between the former Soviet Union and the U.S. have resulted in the modification of the nuclear weapons of the latter in Europe. Many of the tactical warheads in Europe were modified to be installed on planes but those in Turkey remain the same.

“The only governmental decision dates back to 1972. That decision is interesting. It says no changes will be made on the nuclear weapons in Turkey unless necessary. This means we haven’t received new nuclear weapons nor we have returned the old ones,” he said.

Cautious observers are saying since late February that a final struggle is raging in Turkey between the generals (who have been dominating as permanent overlords for 90 years) and the civil government, presently controlled by moderate Islamists led by premier Erdogan. More numerous are other commentators who believe that the power struggle has already been won by the politicians. In fact, some fifty generals have been taken to court, charged with conspiring to overthrow the institutions with a fourth or fifth coup d’état in half a century.

The latter commentators add further proof to their argument -that the Constitution is being re-written to their disadvantage. Usually, though, military coups are carried out with tanks against constitutions, so a new charter doesn’t frigthten tanks.

Most likely, Turkey is going to grow more relevant anyway. With a population of 75 million and a territory as large as the sum of two Virginias, two Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, New Hampshire and Vermont, this nation is rising. Her military might is considerable, and so is her diplomatic vigor. The Bush Administration, for example, was not able to get permission to move against Iraq through Ankara’s territory.

Perhaps the most significant asset of Turkey is her having been a great Empire up to 1918. Today, rulers and public opinions in countries all the way from the Maghreb to Iran, from Syria to Afghanistan and to Saudi Arabia, share an attitude of deep respect toward the heirs of the Sultans in Instanbul. Foreign peoples who speak the so-called Turkic language (in Europe the Osmanlis, in Asia the Uigurs of China, the Uzbeks, Turkmen and Tatars) are at least sentimentally well-disposed toward Ankara. Turkey is trying to enter the European Union, but if forced to wait too long, or if finally rejected, probably will reverse plans toward her Asiatic “basin”.

A final point. When Islamic fundamentalism became aggressive, liberal or progressive opinion in the West suspended for Turkey the traditional prejudice against military rulers. Turkish generals were valued as the defenders, in the name of Ataturk, of secularism against the religious menace. If  they will be the real losers, the triumph of legal institutions will not really please liberals and progressives at large. They will look back with regret to the time when secularist brass enjoyed, in addition to illegal power, a lot of material privileges.

Massimo Calderazzi is member of the Société Européenne de Culture, to which many eminent
scholars and a few Nobel prizewinners belong.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, is planning to request a parliamentary session to review the normalization process with Armenia.

Party leader Deniz Baykal had earlier urged the government to withdraw the protocols signed in October following the approval of “genocide” recognition bills in the Swedish parliament and the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee.

Addressing his party members Wednesday, Baykal criticized recent comments by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who told the BBC in an interview that some 100,000 Armenians had been illegally working in Turkey. Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, however, estimates the number at 14,000, citing Labor Ministry statistics. Erodğan’s remarks were interpreted as a threat to expel the workers in reaction to campaigning by members of the Armenian diaspora for bills such as those passed in Sweden and the United States.

“It is an unfortunate and serious statement,” Baykal said, adding that he found the remark “unacceptable.”

“It is against human rights to misuse those people working in Turkey in seeking a solution to a disagreement,” the CHP leader said.

Baykal has opposed any normalizing of relations with Armenia due to the deadlock in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Yerevan and Baku.

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