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International aid flotilla searches for new flags to sail from Turkey to Gaza

Activists from an international flotilla carrying humanitarian aid are applying for new maritime flags to sail to Gaza from Turkey after the flags of two of their ships were removed by Guinea-Bissau authorities last week.

“We will take flags of different countries. We will also apply to Turkey. We will also try to get Turkey’s flag,” Behesti Ismail Songur, head of the Mavi Marmara Association, a group that is part of the international flotilla, told VOA.

“So, this will be a litmus test for all states. We will see who will be brave enough to flag the freedom fleet,” Songur said.

The flotilla is organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which consists of several Turkish and international groups, including the Turkish Islamist Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) and the Mavi Marmara Association.

Inspection

The flotilla has three ships, named Vicdan (conscience in Turkish), Anadolu (Anatolia), and Akdeniz (the Mediterranean).

Anadolu, docked at Turkey’s Iskenderun port in the Mediterranean, was set to transport 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, the activists were planning to sail to Gaza on the Akdeniz, a ferry, from Istanbul’s Tuzla shipyard. Vicdan, recently acquired by the group, was not part of the planned sailing.

Anadolu and Akdeniz carried Guinea-Bissau flags until last week when the Guinea-Bissau International Ships Registry (GBISR) inspected them and decided to remove the flags.

Flotilla organizers said the GBISR referred to their planned mission to Gaza while informing them about the removal of the flags.

GBISR did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.

The flotilla organizers believe that Guinea-Bissau authorities withdrew their flags because of pressure from Israel, which objects to the refusal of the organizers to allow the ships to be inspected for contraband or weapons. But Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo dismissed these allegations Monday.

Embalo told the Portuguese LUSA News Agency that he never spoke to his Israeli counterpart “about the flagging of ships,” noting that it is not a matter that he would deal with.

“I do not usually talk to the prime minister of Israel; I talk to the president of Israel, a friend I met many years ago. That’s who I have been talking to, but about the war in the Gaza Strip,” Embalo said, adding that he talked with Israeli President Isaac Herzog Sunday.

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