The Turkish Justice Minister, Akin Gürlek, announced this Friday that he has requested the Ministry of Interior to issue a “red notice” through Interpol for the search and arrest of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, within the framework of the case initiated in Istanbul against the leader and several Israeli officials for the assault this spring on the Global Sumud Flotilla bound for Gaza, which included numerous Turkish and Spanish citizens.
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“We will remain firm alongside the Palestinian people, the oppressed, and humanitarian conscience. We will take all necessary steps to ensure that those who commit crimes against humanity are held accountable before justice,” said the Turkish minister in a post on the social network X.
This type of notice, which constitutes a request for assistance to police authorities in other countries to locate and preemptively detain a suspect, is transmitted by each country through their national liaison offices with Interpol and received by all member states, which number 196, that is, almost all countries in the world. However, it differs from international arrest warrants and is not mandatory to comply with.
Netanyahu and 34 other accused are being tried – in absentia – by Istanbul’s Criminal Court No. 11 on charges of crimes against humanity, genocide, deprivation of liberty, intentional injury, torture, property damage, robbery, and hijacking of means of transport both for the first attack on the flotilla in international waters near Crete (Greece) in April, and for the subsequent assault, closer to Gaza, during which the crew were captured at sea, taken to Israel against their will, and later deported, a process during which many suffered beatings, mistreatment, and even sexual abuse.
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What is striking is that the Istanbul court requested the issuance of the red notice a little over a month ago, on July 14, but the Ministry of Justice has not processed the request until now, at a moment of special tension with Israel.
On Tuesday, Israel bombed the runway and hangars of the Abu al Duhur airbase in northern Syria near the Turkish border. The Israeli government justified the attack arguing that Turkish soldiers were going to be deployed at the base, which “would violate the status quo agreed [between Syria and Israel] on security matters.” Turkey, for its part, responded by denying the Israeli allegations and saying that Tel Aviv’s only intention is to pursue “expansionist and destabilizing policies.”
Several local media outlets have highlighted that Israel did not notify its intention to bomb Abu al Duhur through the indirect communication lines they usually maintain, which is interpreted as a warning or another step in the tension between the two countries. In fact, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who is also his country’s special envoy for Syria, expressed great concern about the Israeli bombing and criticized it as “an unnecessary escalation.”
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