During a recent parliamentary session Aytun Çıray criticized the government for its desire to mend fences with the Jewish State. According to him in late March President Erdogan met with Israel’s Energy Minister to discuss ways to normalize bilateral ties without even bothering to inform his Prime Minister and the Foreign Ministry.
In an interview with Radio Sputnik Aytun Çıray described it as a “serious breach of protocol” and demanded a parliamentary probe.
“Our media write about the serious progress achieved in normalizing Turkish-Israeli relations, that this is why Israel is allegedly ready to ease the closure of the Gaza Strip for Turkey and allow us to implement a series of infrastructure development projects there. But in exchange for what?” Aytun Çıray wondered.
He condemned the agreement as a complete fiasco for the author of Turkey’s “Utopian foreign policy, which has dragged the country into a bloody quagmire.”
“It is our people who died during the attack on the Mavi Marmara ship and are now being killed by Daesh and the PKK, who are paying a high price for this defeat, while some people are trying to benefit from all this pain and suffering,” Aytun Çıray emphasized.
He said that he had sent a formal request for Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to explain whether the meeting actually had happened, whether the Premier and the Foreign Ministry had been informed about it and if so, then why had this information been kept under wraps.
When asked whether a final Turkish-Israeli accord would be signed on June 25, Aytun Çıray said he thought so.
“Instead of fulfilling his promise to visit Gaza, our President chose to clinch an agreement with Israel whose provisions are kept secret even from some of our top officials. Even worse, our Energy Minister has direct financial interest in the oil trade. This interest will eventually clash with our state interests.”
“They say that the agreement will allow us to supply medicine and humanitarian assistance to Gaza and that the blockade of the sector will be eased. This is not serious. You either have a blockade or you don’t.”
“What the Turkish leadership initially said was that there would be no normalization with Israel as long as the blockade of Gaza continues.
The Turkish conditions were never met, no apologies offered, only hints. And we are still going to sign these accords,” Aytun Çıray complained.
