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Ex-FM: Turkey- Israel relations will improve only if Ankara's demands fulfilled

Politics Materials 4 July 2010 20:46 (UTC +04:00)
Despite a meeting between officials of Turkey and Israel, relations between these countries can improve only if the Israeli government fulfills Ankara’s demands, former Turkish Foreign Minister and now MP from the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Yasar Yakis believes.
Ex-FM:  Turkey- Israel relations will improve only if Ankara's demands fulfilled

Azerbaijan, Baku, July 3 / Trend U.Sadikhova /

Despite a meeting between officials of Turkey and Israel, relations between these countries can improve only if the Israeli government fulfills Ankara's demands, former Turkish Foreign Minister and now MP from the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Yasar Yakis believes.

"There are definite requirements on the Israeli government, the relations can enter a better stage if they are fulfilled, although the wound will not be cured fully," Yakis told Trend over the telephone.

On Thursday it became known that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Israeli Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer held a secret meeting in Brussels on the restoration of bilateral relations, which were on the verge of breakdown because of the Israeli military's attack on the Turkish humanitarian ship Mavi Marmara routing to Gaza that lead to murder of nine Turks.

The Turkish leadership demanded from Israel to offer a formal apology for the attack on an international convoy in the international waters and pay compensation to the families of the victims, as well as to ease the blockade of the Gaza Strip and accept an international investigation into the incident in the Mediterranean Sea.

Davutoglu said Turkey agreed upon the meeting, which was initiated by Israel, to state directly and clearly its demands to be fulfilled by the Israeli authorities within the international law.

Yakis believes the former military and strategic partnership between the two countries is possible only if Israel fulfills the requirements of Ankara, although the relations between the two nations should not suffer from this.

"Two people - the Turkish and Israeli, who historically have provided tremendous support to each other, should not suffer from the errors that the government makes sometimes," Yakis said. "Turkey demanded respect for itself because of some erroneous actions of the Israeli government."

Meanwhile, Israeli government's official Mark Regev believes goods relations meet both countries' interests, given that Israel had excellent relations with Ankara in the past. "We hope Ankara also holds this opinion," Regev told Trend.

Turkey closed down partially the air transportation for Israeli aircrafts and recalled its ambassador from Tel-Aviv, though there is still military cooperation between the countries.

"Indeed, Turkey is not going to break out war with Israel, but it will use other leverages depending on direction of relations," Yakis said.

For instance, if to speak about trade and economic relations that have been developed in rapid pace until recent crisis, even the Turkish government does not put embargo, although it will not restrain the Turkish businessmen to cease cooperation with Israel, Yakis said.

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