Turkish farmers will punish Israel for the Jewish state's refusal to apologise for a deadly 2010 flotilla raid, Turkey's agriculture minister said Thursday, according to the Anatolia news agency. Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker predicted that "farmers, exporters and seedmen in Turkey will take into account Israel's spoiled attitude and give the necessary response in their relations," Anatolia said.
Eker did not call for an outright boycott of Israeli products and noted that Ankara has no formal agriculture ties with the Israeli government. "Last year we exported agricultural products of 180-190 million dollars to Israel and bought only around one fifth or one fourth of that amount (mostly seeds)," Eker told reporters, adding that Turkey is not dependent on Israeli agricultural products.