U.S. Senator says Turkey responsible for Gaza flotilla

PanARMENIAN.Net - A United States Senator has issued a call for Turkey to be held responsible for the planned launching of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla organized by a group he calls a “terrorist organization.”

In a policy recommendation report authored by U.S. Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois calls on the U.S. to adopt three measures to deal with the planned Gaza-bound flotilla, including labeling the flotilla organizers, the nongovernmental organization İHH, a terrorist organization; offering U.S. naval support to Israel to block the flotilla; and expressing to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that Turkey will be held accountable for the flotilla’s actions, Hürriyet Daily News reported.

“The United States should ... make it clear to Turkish [Prime Minister] Erdoğan that Turkey will be held accountable for any actions that support or enable the İHH to launch its flotilla,” the report said.

“I don’t think that’s a fair assessment,” said Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selçuk Ünal.

The U.S. should “immediately designate the İHH as a terrorist entity under Executive Order 13224, which targets ‘terrorists, terrorist organizations, and those providing financial, technological, or material support to terrorists, terrorist organizations, or acts of terrorism,’” according to Kirk's report, entitled “The Future of Israel’s Security and the U.S.-Israel Relationship.”

The report also included other policy recommendations based on the senator’s recent “intense fact-finding mission to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan.”