"Landep News"
Turkish PM
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan spoke on Saturday at a meeting of Palestinian ambassadors in the capital of Turkey, Istanbul, attended by the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
Erdogan restated Turkey would not normalize its relations with Israel unless the Jewish state apologized for the accident on Mavi Marmara, on May 31, 2010, when the Israeli Navy shot nine Turkish nationals after boarding a boat that was part of the Gaza flotilla transporting humanitarian aid to the Gazans, who had been under Israeli blockade since 2006, when Hamas won elections.
The Turkish PM added that besides formal apology, the Turkish government desires the Israeli counterpart to pay compensation to the families of those who lost dear ones in that accident, and to lift the blockade on Gaza.
This way, Turkey is reiterating the same demand made a week ago, when the PM spoke in exactly the same terms about the normalizing relations with Israel.
Previous demands of the Turks only referred to apology and compensation, but lately Istanbul added the blockade lifting request, meaning both that Israel was in the spot and the Turks felt they could make the best of it and that Turkey is playing well its card of political power in the Middle East and Islamic Africa, after the Arab Spring that practically collapsed most of the states in the region.
Earlier this week, Israeli military officials advanced the idea that Israel could offer a cautious apology, that would settle the Turks and make sure the soldiers that were part of the commando that boarded Mavi Marmara are not prosecuted by the families of those they had to shoot.
This is not an official stance of the defense ministry in Israel, neither of the cabinet, but the military said that Turkey is a valuable ally and the relation should be restored.
Israeli government has hesitated to apology to Turkey in spite of the fact that this prolonged the situation for over a year.
Netanyahu said that the cabinet was ready to express sorrow for the loss of lives the Turkish families suffered, and to pay them compensation.
United Nations are expected to release a report drafted last year by a commission appointed by the U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon and led by former NZ Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, and the former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe.
The panel of inquiry presented its conclusions by mid-September 2010, as scheduled, but the secretary general postponed the assumption of the data in it because he wanted to give the two countries time to reconcile.
According to the data in the Palmer report, the Israeli Navy used unnecessary force and acted brutally toward the people on board, even though they were using metal objects to defend themselves.
The report coincides with statements made by people on board who complained they had been treated brutally.
Israel dismissed the report as anti-Semitic, but the Turkish authorities were happy about it, and added that an apology and compensation to the families would help turn this tragic page in the history of mutual relations.
Turkish-Palestinian Relations
Israeli officials refused to cooperate with the international panel but told an Israeli panel led by a retired judge that they had acted within the frame of the international law in trying to stop the vessel from breaching the blockade.
Earlier this week, the Turkish Prime Minister announced his plan to take a trip to Gaza on his way to Egypt, where he plans an official visit.
Israeli authorities refrained from any strong comments on the matter, but said that it was up to the Egyptian authorities to let him pass into Gaza.
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