CAIRO (Reuters) - Turkey said on Thursday it would escort aid ships to Gaza and would not allow a repetition of last year's Israeli raid that killed nine Turks, setting the stage for a potential naval confrontation with its former ally.

Raising the stakes in Turkey's row with Israel over its refusal to apologize for the killings, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Al Jazeera television that Turkey had taken steps to stop Israel from unilaterally exploiting natural resources in the Mediterranean.

"Turkish warships, in the first place, are authorized to protect our ships that carry humanitarian aid to Gaza," Erdogan said in the interview, broadcast by Al Jazeera with an Arabic translation.

"From now on, we will not let these ships to be attacked by Israel, as what happened with the Freedom Flotilla," Erdogan said.

Referring to Erdogan's comments, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said: "This is a statement well-worth not commenting on."

Relations between Turkey and Israel, two close U.S. allies in the region, have soured since Israeli forces boarded the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara aid ship in May 2010.

Ankara downgraded ties and vowed to boost naval patrols in the eastern Mediterranean in the escalating row. Israel says it acted legally against ships that tried to breach its blockade on the Palestinian enclave which is ruled by the Islamist Hamas group.

Israel has said it will enforce the blockade, which it says is needed to prevent arms smuggling to Hamas.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said earlier on Thursday that Israel and Turkey will eventually mend fences rather than become foes, describing their unprecedented dispute over Gaza as "spilled milk."

Noting that an inquiry commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had vindicated the blockade, Barak predicted that wider Middle East upheaval would help bring Israel back together with its Muslim ex-ally.

"Ultimately this wave will pass. We recognize reality. They recognize reality," Barak told Israel Radio. "We are the two countries that are most important to the West in the region ... I am certain that we can overcome these (disagreements)."

But Erdogan appeared to raise the heat, saying NATO member Turkey has taken steps to patrol the Mediterranean, and vowed to stop the Jewish state from exploiting natural resources in the area.

"You know that Israel has begun to declare that it has the right to act in exclusive economic areas in the Mediterranean," Erdogan said, apparently in reference to Israeli plans to exploit offshore gas reserves found in areas that are also claimed by Lebanon.

"You will see that it will not be the owner of this right, because Turkey, as a guarantor of the Turkish republic of north Cyprus, has taken steps in the area, and it will be decisive and holding fast to the right to monitor international waters in the east Mediterranean," he said.

Turkey says oil deals granted by the Greek Cypriot government, which represents the island in the European Union, are illegal as the borders of Cyprus remain undetermined while Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots pursue reunification talks.

Turkey's plan to flex its naval muscles may fuel Western unease about Turkey's reliability as a NATO partner and its penchant for actions designed to court popularity in the Muslim world.

Asked whether Israel might yet say sorry for the seizure of the Turkish vessel, Barak said: "Look, it's spilled milk. It's not important right now."

In addition to an apology, NATO-member Turkey has demanded that Israel end the Gaza blockade. Israel says the closure is needed to keep arms from reaching Palestinian guerrillas by sea.

source

Awesome, we could do with less asians right now theres an overabundance of them. Lets hope it comes to fruition.

israel should supply weapons and training to the kurds.

Now wouldnt that be something to see?

I love how Turkey needing to send warships to protect humanitarian aid ships from being [edit] boarded[/edit] by Israel is 'Turkey looking for a war'.

so israel was blowing up aid ships was it?  if you dont even know anything, why bother commenting?

Either Israel was blowing up aid ships and thus you need to delete your most recent comment, or they weren't and you need to rewrite the OP.

"Turkish warships, in the first place, are authorized to protect our ships that carry humanitarian aid to Gaza," Erdogan said in the interview, broadcast by Al Jazeera with an Arabic translation.

"From now on, we will not let these ships to be attacked by Israel, as what happened with the Freedom Flotilla,"

there was a convoy of ships attempting to breach a legal blockade.  israel landed troops on the ships and brought them into port in israel, shipping any permissable aid over land to gaza.  on one of the ships (a large passenger ship with hundreds of people on it, not a ship for carrying cargo) people attacked the troops as they were landing with clubs and knives.  the troops managed to pull out their handguns (since their main weapon was a paintball gun, for marking particularly troublesome individuals for when they got to port) and ended up shooting some of "peaceful activists" who were attacking them. nine of whom died.

turkey is essentially saying they intend their military violate the legal blockade of gaza.  and stop the israelis from harvesting their own resources in their eez (because last i looked only the small gas field was near potentionally contested waters)

Ok, edited post above.

Regardless, what of any of this makes you think Turkey wants war with Israel? Have you honestly considered this? Turkey starting a war with Israel, that's going to end well. So you must concede that it is not a prelude to war.

I honestly don't give a shit if you think that the Israeli's are in the right in every sense, and that everyone else around there is pure evil, you're entitled to believe what you want about issues of morality. But you must acknowledge that Turkey's intention is not to start a war, this is just fact, and you are just incorrect otherwise.

This looks much more dangerous than many people would figure. Last I checked, turkey is top 10 in military might worldwide. Someone has to "talk" to Turkey and make them realize the danger Hamas poses to Israel. If those mothaf........ pieces of sh..... would just take the territory that's given to them little by little and stop pushing for the elimination of Israel altogether, life would be considerably easier. I am glad I am not president because WWIII would happen because of me lol. Turkey is a fairly dangerous but perhaps one of the more civilized Islamic type countries overall, but I assume pressures from Islamic neighbors are pushing them to commit to actions to gain their favor which ends up putting the world at risk. If we had Truman in power, the world would not dare f....k with the US and things would be better overall. Of course, we would also need to pull away all troops from overseas (or most at least) and push more towards an isolationist policy (like G. Washington himself wanted).