According to Turkish press reports, an international convoy consisting of 1,000 boats is expected to depart today from Halicarnassus (Bodrum) in southwestern Turkey bound for Gaza with a reported stopover in Cyprus.

An activist named Volkan Oksu seems to be the organizer. His X-platform account has nationalist features and his posts praise the handling of Gaza by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan.

Recently Oksu had complained that he was targeted by Israel, after a publication in the Times of Israel related to the convoy initiative. It states that the initiative is purely individual in nature, not associated with a specific non-governmental organization, and has broad international participation, including “anti-Zionist Jews”.

Speaking to Türkiye newspaper, Oksu said that most participants came from Russia and Spain with the Russians and Spanish coming with 313 and 104 boats respectively, while 12 boat owners from Turkey said that they would participate.

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He states that they will sail in international waters without triggering Israel and will first stop in Cyprus for supplies. After Cyprus, the destination will be the port of Ashdod in Israel.

According to Oksu, the Zionist regime seems to have no chance of attempting something similar to the “Mavi Marmara”, because the ships involved carry US, British, Luxembourgish, Russian, German, Polish, Spanish, and many other flags.

Also, there will not be a single pocket knife on the boats. Oksu further argues that the Israeli authorities will pay a heavy price for any irrational behavior against a multinational peacekeeping flotilla.

A similar initiative in 2010, which went down in history as the incident of “Mavi Marmara”, had a bloody end and casts its shadow on Israel’s relations with Turkey to this day. The ship “Mavi Marmara”, which was chartered by the Islamist-oriented Turkish NGO “IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation”, was part of the “Freedom Fleet”, which attempted to break the blockade of Gaza.

The ship left Turkey with about 800 activists. Israeli commandos stormed the ship, killing 10 activists and injuring 60 people.

Source: APA MPA

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