Turkey Criticizes Kerry Over Request to Delay Gaza Trip ISTANBUL - Turkey chastised Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday, describing his request that its prime minister postpone a visit to the Palestinian territory of Gaza as a display of arrogance. The Turkish criticism signaled resilient tensions in the friendly relationship with the United States and suggested that the Gaza visit would proceed. The criticism came a day after Mr. Kerry, while on a visit here, told reporters that he had urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to delay the Gaza trip to avoid inflaming tensions at a time when the Americans were trying to revive talks between the Palestinians and Israel. "Only our government decides where and when our prime minister or another Turkish official would go to, and is not in a position to seek permission or acceptance of any authority," Mr. Erdogan's deputy prime minister and government spokesman, Bulent Arinc, said in a televised statement. Because both Mr. Kerry and the world know that Turkey has the power to do whatever it wishes at the desired time. Mr. Arinc's statement may have been partly intended for a domestic audience, aimed at countering the possible impression that a visiting American secretary of state could give Turkey orders. It was also notable that the Turkish reaction was delivered by a lower-ranking official, an indication that the Turks did not want the issue to escalate. Nonetheless, the brusque response reflected some Turkish irritation with Mr. Kerry during his first few months on the job. Mr. Arinc said Mr. Kerry's public advice was "diplomatically objectionable, wrong and incorrect." He also said Mr. Kerry had done something that "an experienced foreign minister would have never done." The State Department spokesman, Patrick H. Ventrell, said he had not seen the full context of Mr. Arinc's remarks, but he reiterated Mr. Kerry's contention that "now is not the time" for a visit to Gaza by the Turkish leader. Gaza is governed by Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organization. Mr. Erdogan, who has long expressed a desire to visit Gaza, said last week that he might go in late May, after a visit with President Obama in the United States. But the precise date for a Gaza visit has not been announced. Mr. Erdogan made his Gaza plans known with Turkey and Israel in the midst of trying to repair their severely strained relations over the Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla from Turkey in 2010, which was seeking to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The raid killed eight Turks and an American of Turkish descent. Mr. Obama brokered a Turkey-Israel reconciliation last month when he visited Israel. As part of the agreement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel officially apologized for the human losses, promised compensation and said the blockade would be eased - which the Turkish government demanded before full relations could be restored. Mr. Arinc's criticism came on the same day that an Israeli delegation arrived in Ankara, Turkey's capital, to discuss terms of compensation for families of the Gaza flotilla victims. Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York, and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem.