One of the victims of a 2010 Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara humanitarian aid ship has filed a lawsuit for compensation against the Turkish Finance Ministry for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages he sustained due to the attack, the Hürriyet daily reported on Tuesday.
Muhyettin Yıldırım, who filed the case against the ministry at the İstanbul Civil Court of First Instance, is one of dozens of people who were injured in the Israeli attack, which claimed the lives of 10 people.
Israeli commandoes stormed the Mavi Marmara while it was in international waters on its way to take humanitarian aid to Gaza on May 31, 2010.
Yıldırım is seeking compensation of TL 2.000 for pecuniary damages and TL1 million in non-pecuniary damages from the Finance Ministry.
Yıldırım’s lawyer, Mehmet Alagöz, said his client filed the compensation suit against the Finance Ministry because he cannot file a case against Israel due to a deal Turkey and Israel made.
Turkey and Israel, whose diplomatic relations were suspended after the Mavi Marmara attack, normalized relations in August 2016 after the Turkish Parliament approved a deal for Israel to pay compensation to families of people killed in the attack.
Parliament in August 2016 approved the bill that instructed Israel to pay $20 million to the families as part of a normalization agreement between the two countries struck in July 2016 after a six-year freeze in relations.
In September 2016, Israel deposited $20 million in the account of the Turkish Ministry of Justice as compensation for families of people killed in the Mavi Marmara flotilla.
Alagöz said Yıldırım had to remain in the hospital for three days due to his injuries after the attack, has required treatment for years and is still experiencing the traumatic effects of the incident.