Turkey Inside Line: Ankara's Ramadan Message to Israel, Chemical Weapons against Kurds, Relations with Iran, and Turkey's Gaza Probe

Ankara's Ramadan Message to Israel: On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wished all Muslims an "easy" month of Ramadan. Although this message was meant for the Palestinians, the first response came from Ankara. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party, Justice and Development Party (AKP), excluded Israel's envoy Gabi Levi from the guest list for Eid al-Fitr, the annual dinner marking the end of Ramadan.

AK party chairman of foreign relations committee, Omer Çelik, said:

The reason for not inviting the Israeli ambassador is not on a personal level but rather a symbolic act against Israel's policies.

Anyone who is unjust or inequitable can not pass the threshold of the Justice and Development party’s headquarters.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry's response came quickly:

Once again it appears that Erdogan is initiating an escalation and searching for it. We will behave responsibly and not be pulled into the Turkish sword dance.

Ankara "Used Chemical Weapons": A report from Hamburg University Hospital concludes that eight PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) members killed last September were murdered by “the use of chemical substances.”

MPs from Germany's Christian Democratic Union party and the Green party have been pressuring the government to take an action against Turkey.

MP Andrej Hunko urged the German Foreign Ministry to file a complaint with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague.

Turkish-Iranian Relations: After Brasil signed a decree that the country will abide by United Nations sanctions against Iran, Ankara has decided to continue its close relationship with Tehran.

On Wednesday, Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said that the country will support gasoline sales by Turkish companies to Iran, despite U.S. sanctions.

Tupras, Turkey's sole refiner and gasoline exporter, which buys 33 percent of its crude from Iran, declined to say whether the company had traded with Tehran. However, a Tupras official said, "For us, Iran is more important than America, because we get crude oil from them. We don't get anything from America."

Meanwhile, Ankara denied a report in Italian daily Corriere Della Sera that it will "send sophisticated weapons, rockets and guns to Syria that will end up in Lebanon", with the Iranian army delivering weapons to Hezbollah. Ankara denied these rumours.

"The claims mentioned are without basis," said a senior foreign ministry official.

Turkey's Own Probe: On Thursday, the AFP news agency reported that Turkey had set up its own inquiry into Israel's raid on the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May.

AFP says PM's Office will "investigate the attack and the treatment the activists faced" and present its findings to the United Nations committee of enquiry. committee.

On the same day, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu again blamed Israel:

No one else can take the blame for killing civilians in international waters. Israel has killed civilians, and should take the responsibility for having done so.

Gaza Latest: Why Israel Is Welcoming the UN Enquiry

On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Israel would accept an international probe into the raid on the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May.

The panel will begin its work on 10 August and will file its first report with the UN Security Council by the middle of September. Heading the panel will be former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, an expert on international maritime law. The vice chairman is outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who is considered pro-Israel and pro-United States. Turkey and Israel also will send representatives.

This is the first time Israel is cooperating with a UN investigation of the actions of Israel Defense Forces. Haaretz reports the mandate of the panel:

The panel's mandate is to examine the investigations that Israel and Turkey are carrying out regarding the incident of the Gaza-bound flotilla on May 31. In addition, the panel will seek to examine the facts surrounding the flotilla and recommend ways to avoid such incidents in the future.

The panel will not be authorized to call witnesses --- especially no Israeli soldiers or officers.

So it will be a very limited investigation; the US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said the nternational panel will be "complementary" to national enquiries. Rice added that the US expected  "that the Panel will operate in a transparent and credible manner and that its work will be the primary method for the international community to review the incident, obviating the need for any overlapping international inquiries".

So why did Israel, contrary to initial expectations, accept a UN panel? Because, at the end of the day, it is an investigation doing no more than looking at national (i.e., Israeli) investigations which have already tried to define the findings, findings which have already tried to contain the fact that nine activists died on board the Flotilla.