'Erdogan painted himself into a corner'

Turkish Opposition leader slams Ankara's decision to downgrade diplomatic ties with Israel, says move an unnecessary blow to Turkey's foreign policy

Aviel Magnezi|Published: 09.04.11 , 14:29

Turkish Opposition Leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu criticized Ankara's decision to downgrade its diplomatic relations with Jerusalem, saying that the move was "pointless."

"No good can come of it and there is no need for us to risk our interest with petty actions," he told the Turkish news agency on Sunday.

More on the Israeli-Turkish diplomatic crisis:

Palmer Report fails main objective

Turkey's decision, which included expelling the Israeli ambassador to Ankara and suspending military contracts, was in response to the UN's Palmer Report, which it dubbed as biased.

Kilicdaroglu agreed with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that the Palmer Report was damaging to Turkey, but insisted that downgrading diplomatic relations with Israel would only work against Turkey.

Kilicdaroglu defined the UN-commissioned report on the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid as an "impediment" to Ankara, adding that he was more concerned with the overall tone implied by the report, which he said was "negative towards Turkey," and less with its overall conclusions.

"There was a Turkish delegate on the Palmer commission, but I guess his minority opinion was not expected," Kilicdaroglu said. "Turkey should have known this could happen. It you forge ahead without assessing the situation properly, you hit these kinds of walls. We have to find a way around this now."

The leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) has so far refrained from joining others in his government who were quick to bash Israel over the report.

By expelling the Israeli ambassador and downgrading the diplomatic relations between the two countries, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's has effectively painted himself into a corner, Kilicdaroglu explained.

"This is a blow to our foreign policy and no one wanted to see this happen. What's the use? Tomorrow Israel will claim that the UN has sided with it on the Gaza blockade. Who brought about the (raid's) results? The Marmara. We should have thought about that in advance. There was no need to risk Turkey's interests like that," he concluded.