TURKEY BLOCKS ISRAEL BID TO OPEN OFFICE AT NATO HQ

ANKARA, Turkey - Amid worsening relations between Tel Aviv and Ankara, Turkey has blocked an Israeli move to open a representation office at NATO headquarters, its Foreign Minister said Sunday, September 18, adding that data collected by a radar system in eastern Turkey would not be shared with Israel.
The blockade prevents the flow of food, medicine, and other basic supplies into the impoverished coastal territory.

• “Israel recently made an attempt to open an office at NATO in Brussels. We said we would veto this attempt and the issue was not even put on the agenda,” Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (right photo) said on Sunday.
• A Turkish Foreign Ministry official told the Hurriyet newspaper that Israel attempted to have its request approved earlier this month, after Ankara downgraded ties with Tel Aviv over its refusal to apologize for a raid on an aid ship bound to the Gaza Strip in 2010.
• The official added that the issue could not even make its way onto NATO's agenda after Turkey threatened to use its veto.
• The 2010 attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which was sailing in international waters on a mission to break Tel Aviv's siege of the Gaza Strip, left nine Turkish activists dead and dozens of others wounded.

Israel has refused to apologize for the bloodshed, prompting Ankara to expel the Israeli ambassador and cut all bilateral military ties with Israel.
Meanwhile, Turkey has vowed to take action at the International Court of Justice in the Hague to challenge Tel Aviv's four-year siege of Gaza.

Source: Agency