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PM Erdoğan says no aid convoy activists missing
Erdoğan visited volunteers injured in Monday’s bloody assault at the Atatürk Teaching and Research Hospital in Ankara on Thursday evening. Speaking to reporters at the hospital, Erdoğan ruled out claims that some people who had been part of the aid convoy were still missing. “This is out of question.
There is nobody missing from the list of passengers given to our government. Previously we were unable to locate five passengers but we have now learned which hospital [in Israel] they are being treated at,” Erdoğan said.
Israel says nine people were killed in the attack but there were claims that official Israeli reports on the number of casualties were untrue. Earlier, Bülent Yıldırım, chairman of Turkish charity the Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH), which took the initiative to organize the flotilla, said: “Until now they have returned nine dead bodies, but our list is bigger. There are people missing.” Yıldırım was on the main passenger ship, the Mavi Marmara, which the Israeli navy attacked at the start of its raid.
Nineteen injured activists were taken to the Atatürk Teaching and Research Hospital after Turkey sent three air ambulances and three passenger planes to Tel Aviv on Wednesday to bring back the detained Turkish volunteers. All of them were flown home from Israel on Turkish planes early on Thursday after Turkey gave Israel an ultimatum, threatening to review the state of its ties with the Jewish state unless each and every Turkish national was safely returned. A total of 470 people returned to İstanbul, including 466 activists and four deputies who had traveled to Tel Aviv to bring them back.
Although officials had previously said two injured activists had been left in Israeli hospitals since their injuries were too critical to allow them to travel, Erdoğan said there were currently five activists receiving treatment in Israel.
In line with Erdoğan’s remarks at the hospital, two air ambulances flew to Tel Aviv to bring back the remaining injured volunteers yesterday. Mehmet Ali Zeybek, Ahmet Aydan Bekar and Uğur Süleyman Söylemez were brought to Turkey yesterday and welcomed at the Etimesgut Military Airport in Ankara by Health Minister Recap Akdağ and Turkish Ambassador to Israel Oğuz Çelikkol, whom Turkey recalled in protest over the Israeli raid on the Turkish ship. Officials said two other injured activists, Osman Kurç and Çelebi Bozan, were still in Tel Aviv and that doctors have yet to decide when they can return to Turkey.
Responding to the question of whether Turkey plans to provide naval escorts for future aid convoys to Gaza, Erdoğan said: “No. We are not declaring war, so we won’t provide warships to accompany them. This is not in question.”
Erdoğan visited every injured activist being treated at the hospital, speaking with each of them. “When we listened to our injured brothers, we better understood the torture they were exposed to. Our brothers were all injured by firearms,” Erdoğan said. Noting that prosecutors had taken video testimonies from the surviving activists, he renewed Turkey’s determination to pursue its rights within the framework of international law.
When Erdoğan asked one of the patients, Murat Taşkın, whether he was in pain, he said, “All pain went away when we saw you.” Taşkın told the prime minister that the Israeli soldiers beat him on the ship and fired rubber bullets at him. “We are proud of you,” Irish activist El Mehdi El Hamid El Hamdi told Erdoğan. With the prime minister’s permission, the activist kissed Erdoğan’s forehead to express his gratitude.
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