Turkey sets up own national inquiry team for flotilla raid

The Turkish Foreign Ministry, in a written statement released late on Wednesday, recalled that a committee led by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Interior Minister Beşir Atalay had already been established for investigating the May 31 attack by Israeli security forces on the Gaza humanitarian aid convoy -- which took place in international waters and ended with the killing of eight Turkish and one Turkish-American civilians.

“This time, upon the UN secretary-general’s establishment of the inquiry panel, a National Investigation and Examination Commission has been established by the Prime Ministry for the purpose of investigating said attack and the treatment to which persons in the convoy had been exposed to and for preparing a report to be introduced to the UN Inquiry Panel within this framework,” the ministry said.

In New York, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met on Tuesday with the four-member panel of inquiry into the May Gaza flotilla incident as they sat down to map out how they will conduct the investigation.

The panel -- comprising Chairperson Geoffrey Palmer, the former New Zealand prime minister, Vice Chair Alvaro Uribe, the former Colombian president, Israel’s Joseph Ciechanover and Turkey’s Özdem Sanberk -- “will spend the coming days determining how they will undertake their task,” according to information released by the UN Secretary-General’s office.

Ban stressed during the meeting at UN headquarters in New York that the panelists “should seek the fullest cooperation of the national authorities” as they carry out their work, and that they should perform their mandate in line with the UN Security Council presidential statement issued following the flotilla incident on May 31. The first progress report from the panel is scheduled to be delivered to the secretary-general by Sept. 15.

Turkey’s national commission will work under the coordination of the prime ministry with the participation of bureaucrats from the Foreign Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the Transportation Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Undersecretariat for Maritime Affairs. For communication with the commission of UN officials and the UN inquiry panel, Ambassador Mithat Rende has been appointed as “the contact point,” the ministry said.

The number of members on the commission is not definite as of yet, Today’s Zaman learned from diplomatic sources.

“It is envisaged that the National Investigation and Examination Commission will prepare its report via examining the incident in coordination with all related institutions and establishments,” the ministry concluded.

Amidst debates over the scope of the mandate of the UN panel, UN sources said earlier this week that the panel is not designed to determine individual criminal responsibility, but to examine and identify the facts, circumstances and the context of the incident involving the flotilla, which had departed from Turkey and was bound for the Gaza Strip.

As part of that, the panel will receive and review the reports of national investigations into the incident and request clarifications and information as it needs from national authorities, according to the same sources.

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council’s independent fact-finding mission of high-level experts that is inquiring into the same incident held its first meeting on Monday in Geneva. The mission is charged with determining whether any violation of international law, international humanitarian and human rights law has taken place. Its report is expected to be presented to the council’s next session, slated for September.

Rende: an expert on maritime law

Ambassador Rende, who has been chosen as the contact point for communication between the UN and Ankara concerning the inquiries on the attack, is a distinguished expert of maritime law.

Rende currently holds the position of director general for economic affairs, including energy, water and environment at the Foreign Ministry. Prior to serving in this position, he was Turkey’s ambassador to Qatar. From 1996-2000 he was counselor at the Turkish Embassy in London and deputy permanent representative of Turkey to the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO). At the IMO, Rende was responsible for negotiating issues related to maritime law. He then completed the post-graduate program at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London on security and international relations.