Turkey says it is expelling the Israeli ambassador and cutting military ties with Israel over the country's refusal to apologise for last year's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. The foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said Turkey was downgrading diplomatic ties to the level of second secretary and the ambassador would leave Turkey by Wednesday.
Davutoglu also said Turkey was suspending all military agreements signed between the former allies, saying "it is time Israel pays a price". The long-awaited UN report on the raid, made public on Thursday, declared that Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip was legal, but that the Jewish state used unreasonable force. Davutoglu said some of the report's findings were unacceptable. Turkey had earlier demanded an apology from Israel by the time the report was published. Guardian.co.uk
Also see: MK Zoabi: Try Israel's leaders over flotilla raid - Arab politician unimpressed by UN report on flotilla incident, insists Gaza blockade illegal (ynetnews.com)