Davutoglu: we severed ties with Israel since the Mavi Marmara incident

In response to allegations made by the leader of Turkey’s opposition party accusing the government of engaging in a ministerial visit to Israel, Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, confirmed during a recent television interview that Turkish relations with Israel had been severed since the day Israeli naval forces attacked the Mavi Marmara.
 
Ahmet Davutoglu’s statements came in response to allegations made by, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, in which he attacked the Turkish government during an earlier interview for an Israeli television station.

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Kilicdaroglu criticised the actions of Erdogan’s government in their handling of events surrounding the Mavi Marmara incident stating that, “The Mavi Marmara set off with the consent of the Turkish government; it was the government who wanted to send this campaign and not civil society organisations. If we had been in power, we would not have allowed this fleet to set sail.”

This led to allegations of a Turkish ministerial visit to Israel during this period which was strongly rejected by the Turkish Foreign Minister who stated that, “We here are the country’s foreign affairs ministry and we have no information on any ministerial visit. If Mr Kilicdaroglu possesses documents in this regard then he should show them to us.” He also stated, “Since the events of the Mavi Marmara, no official delegation has been sent to Israel much less to ministerial visits to Israel.”
 
Davutoglu expressed his displeasure with Kilicdaroglu’s statements which side with Israel in criticising Turkey on the Marmara affair. He explained that this was a national issue which demanded national cohesion.