"Turkey-Israel diplomatic relations have been reduced to a second secretary level. All personnel above the second secretary level will be sent home by Wednesday at the latest," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference in Ankara. Israel's ambassador Gabby Levy was currently in Israel and cancelled plans to return to Turkey on Thursday. Israel on Friday said it accepted the findings of the UN report, and that it hoped to mend ties with Turkey, but reiterated that it would not apologise for the deaths.
Immediately after the attack on the aid convoy last year, Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel, suspended joint military exercises, and barred Israeli military aircraft from Turkish airspace. On Friday, Turkey went a step further by putting military pacts with its erstwhile ally on ice. "All military agreements have been suspended," Davutoglu added.
Turkey's reaction to the long-awaited report, which also declared that Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip was legal, deepened a rift that broke wide open in 2009 after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan lambasted the then Israeli president Shimon Peres in Davos over an Israeli offensive in Gaza. Faced with radical changes wrought by the Arab Spring, both Turkey and Israel are desperately trying to adjust to the new political landscape in the region.
But enduring ill-feeling resulting from the flotilla incident has ruined chances of the regional military heavyweights working together, despite the United States' efforts to encourage a rapprochement between two valued allies. And Erdogan's stand on the Palestinian issue has held Turkey in good stead among Arabs agitating for greater democracy, notably in Egypt and more recently Syria.
But Turkey has carefully avoided a complete breakdown in relations with Israel. Both have benefited from military intelligence and co-operation in the past, and Turkey has its own security concerns over a Kurdish insurgency in its south-east. An Israeli official said ongoing defence deals include the upgrade by Israel of Turkish tanks and F-16 jets, as well as the sale of military drone aircraft. "We are studying the implications of the Turkish announcement," the official said without elaborating on the value or prospects for those deals.
By stepping up diplomatic pressure in a calibrated fashion, Ankara has left open chances for a change of heart either by the current Israeli coalition, or a future government. "The Israeli government is responsible for the point we have reached today. For as long as the Israeli government does not take the necessary steps, there is no question of returning from this point," Davutoglu said.
Davutoglu said some of the report's findings were questionable and that Turkey did not recognise the legitimacy of the blockade of Gaza. "Turkey will take all measures which it sees as necessary for freedom of navigation in the eastern Mediterranean," the minister said.
"Turkey does not recognise Israel's blockade of Gaza. It will secure the study of this blockade at the International Court of Justice," he added. Israel calls its Gaza blockade a precaution against arms reaching Hamas and other Palestinian guerrillas by sea. Palestinians and their supporters say the blockade is illegal collective punishment, a view some UN officials have echoed.