In my previous article in Al-Monitor, I said Turkey-Israel relations were in a normalization process.

But since then a Turkish court has placed an incredible and outrageous stumbling block in the way of this process by coming out with a scandalous decision in the symbolic court case begun after Israeli soldiers killed nine Turkish nationals (a 10th, Ugur Suleyman Soylemez died May 25 after four years in coma) on the Mavi Marmara ferryboat, which was taking humanitarian assistance to Gaza on May 31, 2010. The court decided to issue arrest warrants for the then-Israeli Chief of Staff Gen. Gabriel Ashkenazi, navy commander Eliezer Alfred Marom, chief of military intelligence Amos Yadlin and air force intelligence chief Avishai Levi. The court further decided to ask Interpol to issue red notice bulletins for their detention.

Just as relations between Turkey and Israel were on a positive course, with negotiations continuing on compensation and natural gas pipelines, where did this outlandish decision come from? It is a futile decision which can never be implemented and makes a mockery of Turkey. I immediately contacted figures close to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and President Abdullah Gul to discuss the issue.

Without exception, all the sources I spoke to were amazed by the court’s decision. There was not a single one who found it normal and reasonable. They all said such a decision in a symbolic court case, just as the normalization process was making headway, was noteworthy and asked why now, after four years, when it was clear that it would never be put into practice.