“Turkey has become the first state to ever enjoy the honor of making Israel formally apologize over such an incident”. Relations between Turkey, a Muslim-majority nation with a secular Constitution, and the Jewish Israeli state have always witnessed ups and downs, mainly due to the Palestinian problem, with the former being sensitive to the plight of the Palestinians.
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Kerry in Moscow for tough Syria, Ukraine talks with Putin
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“We won’t change our policy on the naval blockade”, Netanyahu said. “We have not given concessions to anybody while defending our rights”.
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What has motivated the Turkish government to make a big U-turn in its relations with Israel, prompting it to mend ties with this nation after five years?Why has the government now declared Israel and its people to be friends of Turkey after directing systematic verbal attacks and accusations at this nation during the years when ties were broken?
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“We are close to a final framework” for a deal on the normalization of ties, said the official. “We were open to this in 2015, 2014, 2013, and it didn’t happen because the Turks were not willing”.
It was also reported that Turkey and Israel have agreed that Salah al-Arouri, a senior leader of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, who has been living in Turkey will not be allowed to operate from there.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Likud faction on Monday that a rapprochement with Turkey is not yet a done deal, echoing comments made a day earlier by a spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party.
But, Netanyahu said that “we still don’t have understandings and we aren’t there for a simple reason: there are topics that interest us, such as Hamas activity, but that’s not enough for us, we want to ensure that there won’t be any terrorist activity from Turkish territory”, Netanyahu said.
“The Turkish government shouldn’t pursue a different path with the Quds [Jerusalem] Occupying regime under such conditions”, he added.
Turkey and Israel continue the talks on normalizing the bilateral relations, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said.
Turkey outlined three conditions necessary for the normalization of ties: an official apology from Israel for the deaths of Turkish nationals during the 2010 flotilla raid; payment of compensation to the families of those killed; and lifting the blockade on the Gaza strip.
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Turkey now relies on Russian Federation for much of its natural gas supplies.
