September 14, 2011

The intra-Turkish debate on the Mavi Marmara

Mustafa Akyol *

If there is any “national” opinion in Turkey today, it is that Israel should have apologized for killing nine civilian Turks on the Mavi Marmara. From Islamists to secularists, or nationalists to liberals, I have heard nobody who thinks that the Israeli soldiers were justified in what they did on that Gaza-bound civilian ship. Nor has anybody, to my knowledge, applauded the “no apology” decision of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But this does not mean that all Turks think the same way about the Turkish activists on the Mavi Marmara, and the particular course of action some of them took. In fact, an interesting debate has just begun – and within a very interesting place: the Islamic camp.