SHOTLIST: ISTANBUL, TÜRKİYE (OCT. 5, 2025) (ANADOLU - ACCESS ALL) 1. MARY ANN WRIGHT, RETIRED US COLONEL, FORMER DIPLOMAT, AMERICAN MEMBER OF FREEDOM FLOTILLA COALITION, SPEAKING TO REPORTER (English)ISTANBUL, TÜRKİYE - OCT. 5, 2025: Mary Ann Wright, a retired US colonel, former diplomat, and American member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), said: “The ships will continue until the blockade is lifted, until Palestine is free.” Wright, an active member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition since the 2010 Mavi Marmara mission and participant in sending over 35 vessels to Gaza, told Anadolu that missions should continue despite setbacks, seeing it as a duty to resist genocide. “Just because a ship and a previous flotilla are detained does not mean we stop,” Wright emphasized. A former US Army colonel who resigned from her diplomatic post in 2003 in protest against the US war on Iraq, Wright said she first visited Gaza in 2009. “I ended up going to Gaza several times in 2009 and seeing the destruction that the Israelis were doing at that time. And then I heard about these boats going to Gaza, trying to go to Gaza,” she said, adding that the missions represent moral responsibility. “The mission of the Conscience Ship and the other nine vessels that are going, plus the Sumud Flotilla, all of those are morally so important to us as citizens of the world that we stand up against our nation's complicity in the Israeli genocide of Gaza,” she said. - US citizens need to say ‘no to genocide, no to ethnic cleansing’ Criticizing the US government’s support for Israel, she said: “As a US citizen, our government is up to their eyeballs in genocide, and our citizens need to say no to the genocide, no to the ethnic cleansing.” She called Israel’s attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters a breach of international law. “The Israeli government, as always, ... detained every boat that has attempted to go to Gaza. And it's an illegal interference because they are stopping us in international waters, arresting us, kidnapping us, and taking us to a place we don't want to go,” she said. She stressed that it is a “moral imperative” for citizens of the world to say “no to Israel and no to our government's complicity in what Israel is doing.” - Every mission, act aim to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza “Being imprisoned because you object to a genocide is crazy,” Wright said. “What we have to object to is a person like (Israeli National Security Minister) Ben-Gvir, who says that genocide is okay, that massacring 60,000 Palestinians is okay.” Wright said it is the duty of “citizens of the world” to stand up to Israeli leaders like Ben-Gvir, adding: “We have to stand up to murderers like Ben-Gvir and others in the Israeli government who are murdering tens of thousands of Palestinians.” “They are violating every international law and every moral law, and hopefully that the gods will take care of them at some stage. But in the meantime, we as citizens of the world must stand up to the murderers to say no to the murders of Palestinians,” she said. Recalling that 462 people were detained after the illegal interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla, Wright said: “I think the Israelis want to get rid of people as fast as they can because we are a burden on them. We're a burden on them because then they can't focus on killing more Palestinians.” “So, we want to be the burden because anything we can do to slow down what Israel is doing to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, that's the whole purpose of the flotillas, is to try to make Israel stop what they're doing,” Wright emphasized. - ‘If Gazans can continue, we have to continue to be in solidarity with them’ Speaking about the Conscience ship attacked and bombed by Israel off Malta, Wright said: “I was in Malta when that happened, and bombs blew up a great part of the bow of that ship.” “We have no defenses against what Israel can do. They can bomb the boats, they can torpedo the boats, but they are boats that have no weapons on them. They only have citizens on them, non-violent citizens that are objecting to the violence of Israel,” Wright said. “The precautions are that we ask the people of the world to stand up,” she added. Wright highlighted the diversity of participants, noting that people from different professions demonstrate broad societal opposition to genocide. “I've been to Gaza myself eight different times since 2009, and I know so many people there, and unfortunately, so many of them have become martyrs because of this genocide. So, it is important that all of us stand up to Israel and to our own governments, whether you be a doctor, a lawyer, a merchant, or whatever, and the ordinary citizen,” she said. Wright said that despite detentions and killings, what keeps her going is seeing Gazans persevere under dire conditions, stressing: “If they can continue, we have to continue to be in solidarity with them.”