2023-11-05 17:35:00
Turkish police on Sunday dispersed using tear gas a pro-Palestinian rally organized in front of the Incirlik military base housing American forces, a few hours before the planned arrival in Ankara of Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The demonstration, in front of the Incirlik air base (south-east), was organized by the Turkish NGO Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH). In 2010, it chartered a flotilla to try to reach Gaza under Israeli blockade, leading to an Israeli raid which left ten people dead.
According to an AFP photographer on site, police intervened when the crowd began moving towards the base after holding a peaceful rally in Incirlik.
Images posted on social media show several hundred people waving Palestinian flags, running in a field and pursued by police who also used a water cannon.
No injuries and no arrests have been reported at this stage. American authorities made no immediate comment.
Incirlik Air Base is owned by NATO member Turkey but is used by the US Air Force – and occasionally the British Royal Air Force – providing strategic access to large areas of the Middle East. .
The demonstration called by the IHH was to coincide with a visit by Antony Blinken, expected Sunday evening in Turkey after visiting the West Bank and Cyprus. He is due to meet his Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, in Ankara on Monday to discuss the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza.
Nearly a thousand people also gathered on Sunday in front of the American embassy in Ankara, according to an AFP photographer on site.
Turkey has been the scene of major demonstrations in support of the Palestinians in recent weeks.
“Massacre immoral”
After the attack carried out on October 7 by the Islamist movement on its territory from Gaza, Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas. At least 1,400 people, the majority civilians, according to Israeli authorities, died during this attack of violence and scale unprecedented since the creation of Israel in 1948.
The Israeli army has since relentlessly shelled Gaza, a small besieged territory where 2.4 million inhabitants live. Since October 7, 9,770 people, mainly civilians, have been killed there by Israeli bombings, according to Hamas.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly criticized the United States for its support for the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip.
He indicated on Sunday that he would continue his trip to the provinces on Monday as planned, thus making a meeting with Mr. Blinken unlikely.
Mr Erdogan condemned an “immoral, unscrupulous and despicable massacre” in Gaza.
On October 28, in a virulent speech delivered in Istanbul during a “meeting in support of Palestine” bringing together hundreds of thousands of people, the Turkish head of state had already accused Israel of “war crimes”.
On Sunday, he clarified that Ankara was working “behind the scenes” to try to put an end to the bloodshed in Gaza and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid. “Rest assured that we are doing much more than meets the eye,” he said.
According to a Turkish diplomatic source, the head of Turkish diplomacy spoke by telephone on Sunday with his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts.
Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel on Saturday for consultations and severed contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to the Gaza operation.
After a decade of near-frozen relations, following the IHH’s attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza in 2010, Israel and Turkey had gradually restored relations since last year. The two countries had reappointed ambassadors and restarted discussions on a gas pipeline supported by the United States.
05/11/2023 16:34:36 – Incirlik (Turquie) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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