Friday, June 17, 2011

Turkish ship pulls out of flotilla. (Another one bites the dust)

Turkish group IHH says the Mavi Marmara ship did not get the necessary approval from Turkish port authorities to set sail, and pulls out of the flotilla. At last count, the flotilla was down to 10 ships and 300 participants. How many more will drop out before the June 25 sail date?

from Haaretz:

The Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) announced on Friday that the Mavi Marmara ship will not participate in the Gaza flotilla planned for later this month due to technical reasons.

In a press conference held in Istanbul, IHH members said that port authorities in Turkey did not provide them with the necessary approval for the Mavi Marmara...
IHH president Bulent Yildirim said pro-Palestinian activists from his group would board other ships in the Gaza-bound flotilla, which includes an American boat, a 40-member Canadian ship and a cargo vessel organized by activists from Greece, Sweden and Norway.

Some of the boats are expected to depart from Greece, and Yildirim acknowledged that Greece's financial problems and widespread anger there over tough new austerity measures had posed a challenge to flotilla preparations.

"There are some problems and crises in European countries, so it might be delayed a few days," he said.


Well, duh.

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