- Chief Officer Gokkiran Gokhan
- Captain Mehmut Tuval
- Statements of Gaza Flotilla members about their readiness to die as "Shahids" (Martyrs for the sake of Allah)
Transcript: Translation from Turkish:
MAVI MARMARA Chief Officer Gökkıran Gökhan
Preparations on the ship before it was taken over by the Israeli Navy
GG: Chief Officer
INT: Interviewer
TR: Translator
GG: While I was on the bridge after dark, before anything happened, the captain called me and the chief engineer; and sent us towards the lifeboats.
TR: OK
GG: There was a crowd in the lifeboat area and some noises coming from there.
The captain told me, “Look, something is happening, there are noises, go and see what’s going on.”
There were a lot of people there. I said to the chief engineer, “Your authority is higher than mine, come with me.”
TR: When did this happen, more or less?
GG: More or less?
TR: Yes, what time was it ?
REC: It’s probably the truth.
GG: Nine, eight.
INT: Eight, nine?
GG: Around 8-9 hrs. It wasn’t 9 yet. It was maybe 8, I don’t know when exactly, but around that time.
TR: OK, yes?
GG: The chief engineer and I went down the stairs together. I don’t know that guy’s name, the one I told you about.
TR: OK, never mind.
GG: We found him.
REC: Great, he wasted two hours of our time!
GG: He, he was one of the people who had clout.
TR: Just a minute, who did you find?
GG: That guy, the chief engineer would know his name.
REC: He knows his job!
TR: Which guy, from the IHH?
GG: IHH.
TR: The chief engineer - the one who cut? I mean did he know the IHH guy who cut the iron bars?
GG: No, no, the chief engineer’s name is Ekrem Çetin.
TR: Yes, that’s another matter.
GG: We went together.
TR: Yes.
GG: There was a crowd.
TR: Yes.
GG: We asked what was going on, what they were doing.
TR: Yes. Did you see them while they were cutting the poles?
GG: The iron poles were already cut. It was all over when we came.
TR: Who cut them?
GG: We didn’t see who cut them.
TR: Who was holding the disk?
GG: The disks were on the corner of the stairs and that man was standing next to them. That man that I told you about.
TR: Yes, he was next to it?
GG: Yes.
TR: You mean the IHH person?
GG: Yes.
TR: Who did the equipment belong to?
GG: I don’t know. Not to the ship, the ship doesn’t have that kind of equipment. There are iron poles on deck, you connect them with chains. They are for the crew, guests or rather passengers while walking on the deck. You take the chain, they pass and then you throw the chain. They were already cut. I saw them cut. I remember now.
TR: This is before it got dark, right?
GG: It was dark. It wasn’t yet pitch dark. We had switched the lights on.
TR: You saw them already cut?
GG: I saw them cut. I grabbed one of the guys and asked him who cut the poles. He answered that he didn’t know.
TR: Who was it? Crew? A passenger? Someone from IHH?
GG: No, he wasn’t one of the crew. It was one of the IHH officers.
TR: From what you say, and I am asking to make sure I understand, it appears that the IHH members were in full command of the ship. And the crew had to ask for their permission to come and go between the decks? The ones they did not know?
GG: Of course they didn’t allow people they didn’t know to come and go. But since they saw me all the time and knew me, they let me go. They never…
TR: Did they stop the crew that they didn’t know?
GG: Sure, sure.
INT: From the beginning?
TR: And was that the situation from the beginning? Since you boarded ship?
GG: Sure, sure.
TR: How did the IHH guys communicate with each other? Using walkie talkies?
GG: With each other?
TR: Yes
GG: Of course. When they boarded the ship at Istanbul they brought walkie-talkies with them. They distributed them among the IHH members and the ship’s crew, meaning the captains and the engineers.
INT: They didn’t give you one, though?
GG: They did and everyone had a different working frequency.
INT: There is something he (the interrogator) doesn’t understand. They didn’t allow the crew and passengers to move freely between the decks?
GG: They could move between decks.
TR: From floor to floor
GG: They could move between the floors. Just not here, just here [GG points at a location on the ship’s blueprint.]
TR: How many IHH members were there, more or less?
GG: 40.
INT: Was it always the same 40 or were they relieved from time to time?
TR: Did they change or were they always the same 40?
GG: The same 40. About 40 people.
INT: Is that the group that boarded the ship at Istanbul with you?
TR: Were these the people who came from Istanbul with you?
GG: Yes.
Turkish transcript:
MAVİ MARMARA İkinci Kaptanı Gökkıran Gökhan -
İsrail Deniz Kuvvetlerinin gemiye girişinden once yapılan hazırlıklar
GG: İkinci Kaptan
INT: Sorgulama Görevlisi
TR: Çevirmen
GG: Köprü üstünde, hava karardıktan sonra, daha bu olaylar hiç yokken, çarkçıbaşınla ben, süvari bey bizi köprü üstünden filika güvertelerinin oraya yolladı.
TR: OK
Filika güvertenin orada kalabalık,ve sesler geliyor. Kaptan bana dedi ki sonra: aşağıda birşeyler oluyor, sesler oluyor, git bak. Kalabalık, çok kalabalık. “Çarkçıbaşına ben dedim ki, çarkçıbaşı siz benden daha yetkilisiniz, beraber gidelim”.
TR: Aşağı yukarı ne zaman ?
GG: Aşağı yukarı_?
TR: Evet, ne zamandı?
REC: Herhalde gerçek.
GG: Dokuz,sekiz gibi
TR: Sekiz dokuz?
GG: İşte, aşağı yukarı sekiz dokuz yoktu, sekizdi belki, tam saatini bilemeyeceğim ama bilemiyorum, ama o saatler aralarındaydı.
TR: OK evet ?
GG: Çarkçıbaşı ile beraber merdivenlerden aşağı indik. O bahsettiğim arkadaşın, ismini bilemeyeceğim.
TR: Farketmez geç.
GG: Onu bulduk.
İbraniceden çeviri : Ne güzel, iki saatimizi boşa harcattı !
GG: O, onun da sözü geçiyordu.
TR: Bir dakika, neyi buldun_?
GG: O adamı, Çarkçıbaşı bilir ismini.
REC: Ne güzel, işini biliyor !
TR: Hangi adamı ?İHH’ mi ?
GG: İHH.
TR: Çarkçıbaşı kesen mi? Yani demirleri kesen İHH’nin kimin olduğunu mu biliyor?
GG: Hayır, hayır, şimdi çarkçıbaşının ismi Ekrem Çetin.
TR: O başka, ayrı.
GG: Beraber gittik.
TR: Evet.
GG: Orada bir kalabalık var.
TR: Evet.
GG: Ne oluyor, ne yapıyorsunuz dedik.
TR: Evet. Kestiklerini gördünüz?
GG: Kesilmiş, olay bitmiş, biz gittiğimizde.
TR: Kim kesiyordu?
GG: Keseni görmedik işte.
TR: Kim, kimin elindeydi disk?
GG: Diskler o merdivenin köşesindeydi ve o adam da, onun yanındaydı, hani bahsettiğim adam var ya.
TR: Evet, o onun yanında mıydı?
GG: Evet.
TR: O İHH adamı disklerin yanındaydı?
GG: Evet.
TR: Aletler kimindi ?
GG: Bilmiyorum. Geminin değil, öyle bir malzeme yok gemide. Personel, misafirler, yani yolcular güvertede yürürken, demirleri vardır böyle, aralarına zincir takarsın. Zinciri alırsın, oradan geçiyorlar oraya, atarsın denize. Bunlar kesilmişti. Ben kesik gördüm. Şimdi hatırlıyorum.
TR: Bu karanlık olmadan, değil mi, daha karanlık inmeden?
GG: Yok, karanlıktı, tam gece karanlığı değildi. Işıkları yakıyorduk.
TR:Kesik gördünüz?
GG: Kesik gördüm. Ordan birisini tuttum, kim dedim bunları kesti, bilmiyorum dediler.
TR: O birisi kim ? Personel mi? Yolcu mu? İHH mi ?
GG : Yok, yok. Personel değil. İHH’nin yetkililerinden.
TR: Öyle bir imaj çıktı ki, doğru anlıyor muyum diye soruyorum, yani sonuçta bu gemiyi kontrol eden İHH insanlarıydı ve personel sanki onlardan geçmek için izin istiyordu. Hani tanımadıklarını?
GG: Tabi, tanımadıklarını geçirmiyorlardı. Ama bizi gördüğü için sürekli, beni tanıdıkları için hiçbir zaman .
TR: Tanımadığı personeli durdurdular mı ?
GG: Tabi, tabi.
INT: Başından beri mi ?
TR: Başından beri mi ? Yani gemiye çıktığından beri ?
GG: Tabi, tabi.
TR: Nasıl konuştular birbirleriyle bu İHH’li insanlar? Walkie Talkie’lerle mi?
GG: Kendi aralarında mı?
TR: Evet
GG: Tabi. Gemiye ilk başta İstanbul’dayken getirildi. İHH yetkililerine hem de gemi görevlilerine, yani kaptanlarına, mühendislerine dağıtıldı.
TR: Size verilmedi ama
GG: Verildi, herkesin çalışma frekansı farklıydı.
TR: Birşey anlamadığını söylüyor (sorgulama görevlisi). Yani personelin ve insanların güverteden güverteye geçmelerine izin vermiyorlar mıydı ?
GG: Hayır, güverteden güverteye değil
TR: Katlardan katlara
GG: Geçebiliyor. Sadece şurda diyorum, şurası [GG geminin planında bir noktaya işaret ediyor.]
TR: Kaç kişi İHH’den kaç kişi vardı aşağı yukarı ?
GG: 40
INT: Hep aynı 40 mı yoksa değişiyorlar mıydı?
TR: Sürekli değişiyorlar mıydı aralarında yoksa aynı 40 kişi miydiler?
GG: Aynı 40 kişi. Yani yaklaşık 40.
INT: İstanbul’dan sizinle gemiye binen insanlar mıydı ?
TR: Bunlar İstanbul’dan sizinle beraber gelen insanlar değil mi ?
GG: Evet.
Released June 15: Statements of Gaza Flotilla members about their readiness to die as "Shahids" (Martyrs for the sake of Allah)
The flotilla members on board the Mavi Marmara publicly expressed their readiness to die on board the ship as 'shahids' - additional proof the hard core of IHH operatives had prepared for a violent confrontation with the Israeli forces.
The following video contains interviews of flotilla members:
- Shaza Barakat, one of the women passengers about the Mavi Marmara, interviewed by Al-Jazeera TV two days before the takeover of the ship, said "Two good things will happen: either we'll die as martyrs or we'll reach Gaza."
- One of the passengers interviewed during the voyage said he wanted to die as a shahid. He said he had participated in two previous convoys and wanted to be a shahid and twice he had been "unlucky." He was not, he said, afraid of 'those cockroaches' (Israelis).
- Hussein Urush, a senior IHH member and one of the organizers of the flotilla, interviewed by Al-Jazeera TV a few days after the takeover that all the passengers were prepared to die as martyrs and that the goal of the flotilla was to reach Gaza or die trying.
Source: http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/