Turkey denies probe into Country's jews over Mavi Marmara raid

 

 

Turkey has strongly denied media reports that it has launched a probe into some of the country's Jewish citizens on suspicions that they collaborated with Israel in the deadly 2010 raid on the Mavi Marmara ship, which killed eight Turks and one Turkish American. "There has never been anti-Semitism in any part of our history and there will never be. Racism does not exist in the culture and the tradition of the Turkish nation. Turkey has repeatedly said it considers anti-Semitism and racism crimes against humanity," Selcuk Unal, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Saturday. Unal said legal procedures are underway to identify possible perpetrators of the Mavi Marmara incident, adding that those legal procedures have nothing to do with Turkey's "Jewish community, who are equal citizens and an integral part of our society." The Turkish media claimed last week that Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) had identified five Turkish citizens who were allegedly either among the Israeli troops who raided the Mavi Marmara or among those who interrogated the victims following the raid on the ship in May 2010. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that there is no basis for this news published with reference to certain Turkish institutions. "It is clear that these press reports, which have been picked up by the foreign press, particularly in the US, have been exploited, leading to some misperceptions," the statement added.