When the calendars showed on May 27, 2010, about 600 passengers, including activists, journalists and politicians from different countries such as Malaysia, Kuwait, Algeria, Greece, England and Ireland, departed from Antalya port to take humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Ships carrying food, clothing, medical and construction materials to Gaza wanted to break the embargo of Zionist Israel.
When the calendars showed the hours of May 31, 2010 at 4:30 am in the morning, the passengers of Mavi Marmara were attacked by the Israeli occupying forces bloody in international waters.
4 battle frigates belonging to the occupying forces, 3 helicopters, 2 submarines and 30 zodiac boats surrounded the Mavi Marmara ship. In the Mavi Marmara, where the killer Israeli soldiers used real bullets, 10 Turkish citizens falled martyrs. Hundreds of people were detained.
One of the largest civilian massacres in history was the Mavi Marmara ship, which contains only humanitarian aid and all of its passengers were vulnerable. As a result of the attack by terrorists; Journalists-Author Cevdet Kılıçlar, Necdet Yıldırım, İbrahim Bilgen, Ali Haydar Bengi, Cengiz Akyüz, Çetin Topçuoğlu, Cengiz Songür, Fahri Yaldız, Uğur Süleyman Söylemez and Furkan Doğan 10 citizens were martyred.
Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Israel after the attack. The diplomatic relations with Israel were reduced to the second clerk level. However, Israel has continued to keep its ambassador in Turkey. There has been great reaction from the world to the Israeli attack. Greece, Egypt and Sweden were among the countries that withdrew their ambassadors from Israel. The United Nations and many other countries have only condemned the incident.
On May 14, 2013, the International Criminal Court of Israel (UCM) filed a complaint with lawyers from the state of Comoros due to the fact that the Mavi Marmara was on the road to Gaza with the flag of the State of Comoros. However, due to the prosecutors' insistence, the ICC postponed the case. Six years after the application to the ICC, the first hearing of the case could be made.
Although 10 Turkish citizens were martyred in Mavi Marmara, the government did not seek the rights of its citizens in any international court. On the contrary, government officials, which decided to normalize with Israel, decided to normalize with Israel. Signed on 28 June 2016 "Procedures Relating to Compensation Agreement Between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and Israel," despite all the objections were approved by the Council of Ministers. With the agreement published in the Official Gazette in Turkey opened against Israel's Mavi Marmara case and reduced all cases. Israeli soldiers who were involved in the raid in Mavi Marmara were exempted from all civil and criminal liability for $ 20 million.
The Mavi Marmara ship, which was set off in 2010 to attack Gaza and was attacked by terrorist Israeli soldiers and was referred to as veteran ship, was sold to businessman Erdoğan Tümsek in 2018. The name was changed after the sale of Gazi Gemi Mavi Marmara. Gazi Gemi Mavi Marmara, now known as Erdogan Bey, is carrying trucks instead of going to Gaza for help.