Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç stated recently that the rumors circulating about the Turkish government's refusal of aid offers from Israel were untrue and "ugly," Hurriyet Daily News reports.

"Whoever is doing this is doing something horrendous," Arınç said. "We may not be on the best of terms with Israel on a governmental basis. Yet to respond negatively to such humane offers of the Israeli government in the wake of such disaster would have been wrong and inappropriate. It is completely untrue that we refused their help on separate agendas."