Israel and Turkey mend ties after six year strain
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Five years since their fallout and after many rounds of talks Israel and Turkey have finally reached a deal to normalize relations, announcements are expected from both Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim today.
This follows a meeting between Israeli and Turkish negotiating delegations in Rome on Sunday as reports hinted that both countries were close to finalizing the deal.
According to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already called the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas to tell him of this development which Abbas has reportedly welcomed.
Before May 2010 Israel and Turkey maintained friendly relations, on that month however Ankara angrily suspended relations following an Israeli military raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla, which was trying to breach Israel’s blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Ten Turkish nationals were shot dead in the raid.
Following the incident Turkey demanded that Israel must apologize for the incident, pay reparations to the families of the dead and lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip if it wanted ties to be normalized.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already apologized for the outcome of the raid in 2013.
According to The Jerusalem Post both countries agreed that instead of lifting the blockade on Gaza Israel will permit Turkey to transfer humanitarian aid to that territory without any restrictions through the southern Israeli port of Ashdod. They will also allow the Turks to build a power plant and hospital in Gaza.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu denied that Turkey had relinquished its demand that Israel completely lifts the blockade.
“Saying that Turkey has given up one of its two remaining conditions, which is lifting the embargo and blockade on Gaza, would mean humiliating the people’s intelligence. If Turkey had given up these [conditions], then relations would have been normalized by now,” he argued.
Also Israel will pay $20 million to a fund established by the families of those killed on the Mavi Marmara as reparations. However this money will only be paid once the Turkish parliament passes a law that will not bar any further legal claims against Israel over that incident.
According to a Haaretz report published on Sunday, Israeli and Turkish intelligence services also reportedly reached an agreement regarding the status of Hamas in Turkey, another contentious issue between the two powers.
As part of the agreement Ankara will forbid Hamas from planning any terrorist attacks on Israel or Israeli-related targets in Turkey instead of deporting them from the country, as Israel insisted. Hamas will be allowed remain in Turkey as a political party.
The normalization agreement comes after Turkey has become increasingly isolated in the region in recent months.
Relations with one of its biggest trading partners, Russia, were also seriously strained after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane over the Syria-Turkey frontier last November, which saw Moscow level sanctions against Ankara.
Those sanctions included gas exports to Turkey, a resource which that country heavily depends upon. Normalization of ties with Israel is expected to, in the long-term, see the two countries broker a multi-billion dollar gas deal since Israel wants to export its newly found natural gas reserves while Turkey wants an alternative source.
This follows a meeting between Israeli and Turkish negotiating delegations in Rome on Sunday as reports hinted that both countries were close to finalizing the deal.
According to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already called the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas to tell him of this development which Abbas has reportedly welcomed.
Before May 2010 Israel and Turkey maintained friendly relations, on that month however Ankara angrily suspended relations following an Israeli military raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla, which was trying to breach Israel’s blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Ten Turkish nationals were shot dead in the raid.
Following the incident Turkey demanded that Israel must apologize for the incident, pay reparations to the families of the dead and lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip if it wanted ties to be normalized.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already apologized for the outcome of the raid in 2013.
According to The Jerusalem Post both countries agreed that instead of lifting the blockade on Gaza Israel will permit Turkey to transfer humanitarian aid to that territory without any restrictions through the southern Israeli port of Ashdod. They will also allow the Turks to build a power plant and hospital in Gaza.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu denied that Turkey had relinquished its demand that Israel completely lifts the blockade.
“Saying that Turkey has given up one of its two remaining conditions, which is lifting the embargo and blockade on Gaza, would mean humiliating the people’s intelligence. If Turkey had given up these [conditions], then relations would have been normalized by now,” he argued.
Also Israel will pay $20 million to a fund established by the families of those killed on the Mavi Marmara as reparations. However this money will only be paid once the Turkish parliament passes a law that will not bar any further legal claims against Israel over that incident.
According to a Haaretz report published on Sunday, Israeli and Turkish intelligence services also reportedly reached an agreement regarding the status of Hamas in Turkey, another contentious issue between the two powers.
As part of the agreement Ankara will forbid Hamas from planning any terrorist attacks on Israel or Israeli-related targets in Turkey instead of deporting them from the country, as Israel insisted. Hamas will be allowed remain in Turkey as a political party.
The normalization agreement comes after Turkey has become increasingly isolated in the region in recent months.
Relations with one of its biggest trading partners, Russia, were also seriously strained after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane over the Syria-Turkey frontier last November, which saw Moscow level sanctions against Ankara.
Those sanctions included gas exports to Turkey, a resource which that country heavily depends upon. Normalization of ties with Israel is expected to, in the long-term, see the two countries broker a multi-billion dollar gas deal since Israel wants to export its newly found natural gas reserves while Turkey wants an alternative source.