The organizers of the Gaza flotilla announced in advance their intention of using violence against Israeli forces if the latter tried to prevent the ships from reaching Gaza. This intention was expressed in interviews given by the head of the IHH, Bulent Yildirim, to Turkish television stations on the last night of the voyage, as the ships approached the coast. Following are two examples. The interviews can be find in the archive of the IHH website: http://tinyurl.com/IHHViolence
Interview on Turkish Television Channel NTV broadcast on the evening of May 30, 2010:
Interview with Bulent Yildirim, head of IHH
Interviewer: Welcome; we have a small guest as well.
Yildirim: We've now entered the critical hours. What we're really talking about here is humanitarian aid, and this small child will always remember this journey in the future. The boy's picture will certainly pique Israeli public opinion.
Interviewer: What makes this voyage so critical?
Yildirim: The reason stems from Israel's aggressive position, which has unnecessarily inflated the whole matter. They are using their naval fleet against women, children and elderly people. Civil rights organization representatives are here, and the whole world will see what's happening here. We will definitely resist and we will not allow the Israelis to enter here.
(see the first three minutes of the video)
2. Interview on the Turkish state television channel TRT 1, broadcast the evening of 30 May 2010:
Bulent Yildirim: The Israelis think that the more soldiers they send, the less casualties there will be among the activists. On this ship there are also women and children. The whole world knows this. We'll show them what is means to board the ship. If Israel wants to board this ship, it will meet strong resistance.
(see min. 96:00 of the video)