Turkish official hints Israel is responsible for Wikileaks

By JPOST.COM STAFF 
12/02/2010 05:27

Deputy leader of Turkish PM's party says it is suspicious that "Israel is very pleased" by the released State Department documents.

Photo by: Associated Press

A senior official in Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government blamed Israel for the Wikileaks release, saying on Wednesday that Israel wanted to use the documents to put pressure on Turkey, Turkish daily Huriyyet reported.

"One has to look at which countries are pleased with" the leaked documents, Huseyin Celik, deputy leader of Erdogan's AKP party, explained. "Israel is very pleaed. Israel has been making statements for days, even before the release of these documents."
"Documents were released and they immediately said 'Israel will not suffer from this.' How did they know that?" Celik asked at a press conference.

Celik said that "the main cause of these leaks was to weaken the Turkish government."
On Tuesday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said that the leak was the result of "systematic work," but avoided specifically mentioning Israel.
About 8,000 of the documents released on Sunday are from the American Embassy in Ankara. Some of the documents showed that Turkey helped Iran develop its nuclear program.