Turkey threatens reprisals, Greece halts joint maneuver with Israel over Israeli naval commando action which killed 9 activists aboard the pro-Palestinian flotilla lead boat  80 miles out at sea. Casualty figures still not confirmed. Passengers attacked the soldiers, opened fire with gun snatched from a soldier and wielded knives and iron bars. The soldiers shot back after 10 were injured. Helicopters ferried all the casualties to Israeli hospitals. Nationwide alert for disturbances declared in Israel and around its borders. 

debkafile's military sources report Israeli concerns that on top of strong diplomatic reprisals, Turkey may resort to military steps along with Hizballah and Hamas for the Israel Navy's seizure Monday, May 31, of the Turkish vessel leading the flotilla in which 9 activists died, 33 injured.  Turkish chief of staff Gen. Ilker Basbug was recalled urgently to Ankara from a visit to Egypt after Ankara threatened "unprecedented and incalculable" reprisals. Greece halted its joint exercise with Israel in protest.

Israel's advanced military hardware sales to Turkey are petering out under the impact of Tayyep Recep Erdogan's alignment with Syria and Iran and his poisonous attacks, with detrimental effect on the Turkish army's operational capabilities. debkafile sources report that Israel refused to sell the Turkish Navy the Barak 8 missile interceptor, whose radar provides warships with 360-degree coverage against incoming missiles or air attack. Its co-developer India is equally adamant against the sale.

The Turkish army, NATO's second largest, is showing little fight against the pro-Muslim Erdogan government's mass arrests of top military chiefs, past and present. Washington and Brussels ask which way it will jump in a war involving Iran.

Turkish prime minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has engineered a fresh assault on the already crisis-laden relationship between Turkey and Israel by putting up members of his ruling AK Islamic party to accuse the Israel military of planting bugs at Turkish military headquarters in Ankara for covert surveillance on Iran and Syria.
Erdogan is determined to stamp out the last remnants of the once-warm ties between Turkish ...