[Tuesday, April 29, 2014] Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Teyyip Erdogan, stated that a comprehensive reconciliation deal with Israel is likely to be reached within a few days or weeks, at most, and thanked U.S President, Barack Obama, for his effort to reach this goal.Erdogan said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “apologized” for the attack on the MV Marmara solidarity ship, part of the Freedom Flotilla that was heading to Gaza to deliver humanitarian supplies.
The attack took place on May 30, 2010 in international waters close to Gaza territorial waters, and left nine Turkish activists dead; dozens of activists of different nationalities were injured and kidnapped.
Erdogan said the final stage of reconciliation will witness the signing of the agreement, and that he hopes nothing which could ruin this reconciliation will occur. The first step after that, he said, would be sending ambassadors back to their embassies in Ankara and Tel Aviv.
Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth quoted a senior Israeli official close to reconciliation file, stating that “the problem is not in Netanyahu, but in the Turks themselves,” and added that “Israel has no objection to reaching an agreement with Turkey.”
The official said that most of the details of this agreement were reached several months ago, and that the Turkish government agreed to compensation, around 20 Million USD to the families of the victims and, in return. Turkey would void all suits filed against Israeli soldiers and officials who participated in the attack.
