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Israel welcomes Erdogan's call for normalizing ties after flotilla raid in 2010

Xinhua, December 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israel on Monday welcomed statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that encourage the normalization of ties between the two.

"Israel has always sought stable relations with Turkey and is constantly examining ways through which it would be able to achieve this stability," Israeli Foreign Ministry's Director General Dore Gold said in a statement.

Despite this seemingly welcoming statement, an unnamed Israeli official told the Ynet news website that as far as normalizing the relations, "the ball is in Turkey's court."

"We've apologized and we're willing to pay (compensations)," the source said, but added Israel is rejecting the notion of ending the blockade of the Gaza Strip, which he implied to be a Turkish demand.

Turkish media outlets quoted the Erdogan as saying that normalizing the ties between the countries would "have a lot to offer us and the region."

He also added that normalization could be in place if both countries would be able to strike a deal over the compensation of the families of Turkish victims who died during an Israeli naval raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010.

Erdogan added, however, there are still hurdles to pass before such a deal could be reached.

The 2010 flotilla was boarded by the Israeli navy as it tried to reach Gaza and break the Israeli-imposed blockade. The incident, which resulted in the deaths of 10 Turkish nationals, had dealt a major blow to the bilateral relations.

Shortly after the incident, the countries demoted their diplomatic relations and Turkey deported the Israeli ambassador to Ankara in September 2011.

The relations between the countries also suffered as Erdogan became a vocal objector to Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip.

In 2013, however, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Erdogan over the killings of the Turkish citizens, paving the road to possible rehabilitation of the contacts.

Since then there have been reports of secret channels between Israeli and Turkish officials and on-and-off meetings in Jerusalem and in Ankara.

In December 2013, some reports suggested a breakthrough had been reached in a compensation agreement at the amount of 20 million U.S. dollars to be paid by Israel to the families of the victims. Other clauses were reportedly worked out in the early months of 2014, but did not yet receive approval from the leaders of both countries. Endit