According to a Turkish defence ministry official on Thursday, American authorities informed their Turkish colleagues that aircraft carriers had moved closer to Israel in the eastern Mediterranean in preparation for a potential evacuation of civilians.
Following an unexpected attack by Hamas militants on Israel earlier this month, the United States has sent two aircraft carriers, together with their support ships, to the eastern Mediterranean.
As a result of the action, the United States, according to President Tayyip Erdogan, will carry out “serious massacres” in Gaza.
He added that Turkish efforts to restore peace in the area were hampered by the presence of American aircraft carriers in the area.
“When we raise this issue with our US counterparts, they tell us that those aircraft carrier groups were sent there as part of non-combatant evacuation operations for civilians in the region,” a Turkish defense ministry official said to reporters.
Aircraft carrier battle groups are being sent to the area, according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “not as a provocation, but as a deterrent.”
