Gaza takes center stage in Turkish local politicsIsrael’s attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla has firmly taken hold as a key domestic political issue with demands from two of Turkey’s opposition parties for a parliamentary inquiry into the events surrounding the incident.The main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, both submitted requests Wednesday for Parliament to investigate what led up to the deadly raid.A delegation led by Justice and Development Party, or AKP, deputy leader Ömer Çelik including AKP deputy Suat Kınıklıoğlu and the prime minister’s chief advisor İbrahim Kalın meanwhile was preparing to travel to Washington, D.C., on Monday to meet with American officials, Israeli lobbies and NGOs to discuss the incident, which killed eight Turks and one American of Turkish descent.“All kinds of international legal and diplomatic steps should be taken to reveal those who are responsible for the incident and punish the attack, the latest in a string of aggressive [moves] Israel has displayed in the region for years,” the MHP’s motion read.Turkey has pressed for an independent, international probe of the raid, an idea Israel has rebuffed, saying it is planning its own internal investigation.Delegation to USThe delegation led by Çelik, considered Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s right-hand man, will focus on drawing a general picture of the current state of Turkish-U.S. relations, diplomatic sources said. The two NATO allies disagree over the sanctions against Iran set for a U.N. vote Wednesday, with Turkey criticizing the U.S. for not paying enough attention to the enriched-uranium swap deal it and Brazil brokered with Tehran.The announcement of the visit came a day after Erdoğan harshly criticized the country’s diplomats, without specifying whether he was referring to retired or serving ones. It was unclear whether Çelik’s group would include diplomats from the Foreign Ministry.The deputy leader’s feedback from the trip is expected to influence Erdoğan ahead of a planned June 26 meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Toronto on the margins of the G-20 summit. Çelik is assigned to inform Washington about Turkey’s views on both the Iranian nuclear standoff and the assault on the Turkish aid ship.U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed concerns Wednesday about the deterioration in relations between Turkey and Israel and the implications for regional stability, and expressed hope the ties would be re-established over time.Motion on aid flotilla attackMHP deputies led by Mehmet Serdaroğlu said in their motion that Israel’s attack against civilians and a civilian aid flotilla was a kind of “state terror” against human values. They also called on Parliament to investigate whether the Turkish Foreign Ministry had warned the organizers of the aid ships beforehand about the dangers they might face and whether some AKP deputies had decided not to join the activists onboard as a result.“Parliament should investigate why our citizens were sent in an indefensible way and couldn’t be protected in international waters and why Turkey failed to prevent this attack,” the motion said.Hürriyet