Belated, But Just Desserts

The penalty, courtesy of Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to an Israel obdurately resistant to meekly apologizing for the defensive actions of IDF naval commandos who killed nine Turks linked to a terrorist group in Turkey who had attempted to breach Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, is a judgement of life in prison for the former heads of Israel's military sections.

In the drama that played out on a Turkish vessel in May of 2010, Israeli soldiers opened fire after rappelling onto the deck of the Mavi Marmara when they were met with violence, threatening their lives.  The result was the death of the nine 'pro-Palestinian activists', whom Turkey characterizes as innocent humanitarians, and whom a video taken at the scene of the chaotic exchange clearly demonstrates them to have been armed and dangerously violent.

Fully intent on killing the Israeli commandos who decided they would far prefer to continue living, and to enable that to occur, had to resort to defence, leading to the deaths of the nine.  A UN investigation led to a report that found Israel's naval blockade to be completely legal and appropriate under the circumstances of its having to curtail the terror group Hamas's importation of weapons to Gaza, to attack Israel with.

It found also, as any United Nations' sponsored report would do through force of habit and obvious manipulation by the many critics of Israel at the world body, that "excessive and unreasonable" force was used by the IDF naval commandos against those on board the Mavi Marmara.  Even while the video, as stark evidence, exonerates the IDF from that interpretation, it has become the received wisdom.

Istanbul's 7th Criminal Court chose to accept a 144-page indictment prepared by the Istanbul prosecutor, Mehmet Akif Ekinci, to punish Israel by seeking life terms for General Gabi Ashkenazi, former chief of staff of the Israeli military; Vice Admiral Eliezer Marom, former naval forces commander; Major-General Amos Yadlin, former military intelligence chief; and Brigadier-General Avishai Levi, former head of air forces intelligence.

Prison terms totalling up to 18,000 years for other crimes said to have been committed during the raid were to add to the life sentences.  Obviously, Turkey was engaging in a return scenario of their witch hunt that took place within the country's own military, when it arrested, charged and imprisoned senior Turkish military officers on charges of attempting to stage a coup to unseat Prime Minister Erdogan's Islamist Justice & Development Party.

Aptly enough named, since it seems that it is intent on developing Turkey back into a Sharia-led Islamist state, turning it away from Kamal Ataturk's secularist and modernist vision of the country, and in the process do justice to the Kurds, agitating for their very own slice of land so they too may have a country to call their own.

Justice might call for Turkey to recognize the right of Kurds representing the largest ethnic minority in the world without a land of their own, existing on sufferance in Iraq, Syria and Turkey.  Justice might also call upon Turkey to finally acknowledge the horrible slaughter they inflicted, during the Ottoman Empire, upon Turkish Armenians, displacing both Kurds and Armenians in huge numbers in an effort to defuse their defiance of Turkish oppression.

And in the process murdering millions of innocent men, women and children in a deliberate effort to obliterate them as a nation and a distinct ethnic group whose presence was so troubling to the ruling Turkish authority.  And which, ever since, all succeeding Turkish governments have denied responsibility for. 

Perhaps the International Criminal Court could try Turkey for genocide, the punishment for which could be a sincere and long overdue apology, rather than 18,000 years of imprisonment?