Pyotr Lyukimson, Israel, exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
On October 6 in Istanbul the trial in absentia of former Chief of Staff of the Israeli army Gabi Ashkenazi, former military intelligence chief Amos Gilad and the former commander of the Israeli Navy Eliezer Marom has begun. Despite the country's election campaign, the news has not gone unnoticed by the Israeli media.
As VK has already reported, the Turkish prosecution accuses the three former leaders of the IDF of incitement to murder, of murder of 10 "innocent civilians" on board the ship "Mavi Marmara", of illegal orders to use weapons, etc.
The indictment presented to Istanbul court took up 144 pages, and the prosecution demands eighteen thousand years in prison for the accused.
It is expected that during the trial the judges will listen to 490 witness statements by passengers of 'Mavi Marmara' and journalists. It is still unclear whether anyone will play at least a formal role of defence in the trial or whether Turkish justice will consider it to be unnecessary.
As expected, the course of the trial will be filmed by state television, but there will be no live coverage. "It’s a pity!” - one Israeli journalist noted in this regard, “this broadcast would be more popular in Israel than any TV series. After all, the trial is going to be even more interesting than Kafka's famous novel."
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has issued an official statement saying that “the tribunal in Istanbul has no relation to justice and cannot be called regulatory litigation, because it tramples over all the laws accepted in the world." Thus, the very holding of such a process is, according to the Foreign Ministry of Israel, nothing more than a propaganda stunt. However, the statement said that even such a trial may have its positive effects - if the Turkish Government allowed an honest, open discussion, both on the "World Wide Web" and in the Turkish Internet space.
Several Israeli columnists wrote in their blogs that they saw another test for the Turkish-Israeli relations in the current situation. This test, in their opinion, could be successfully sustained if mass anti- Israeli hysteria does not break out in Turkey as a result of the trial, but on the contrary, there are forces that raise their voices against the absurd nature of the process and the false treatment of the events that took place on the ship "Mavi Marmara", from the point of view of Israel.
