Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 2 / Trend U. Sadikhova /
Israeli minister's visit to Turkey is important for relations between Turkey and Israel. Development of these relations is significant for both countries, given their regional political weight, adviser to the Knesset subcommittee on Foreign Relations Oded Eran said.
"I think that relations between Turkey and Israel can be developed, because both countries are key players in the region. I am sure that Ankara and Jerusalem realize it," ex-Israeli ambassador to the EU and NATO, now head of the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies, Eran told Trend .
One of the ways to develop relations and avoid tension is to increase dialogue between countries and to identify differences in the positions to be solved, Eran said.
"Turkey and Israel should move to an active and open dialogue between the political leaderships," Eran said.
The visits of governmental members and heads of both states will have some positive effect, he said.
Being on official visit to Turkey, Israeli trade and industry minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said that his country wants to raise the Turkish-Israeli relations to a higher level, the Russian office of the Turkish state television TRT reported.
The main purpose of Ben-Eliezer's visit to Ankara and Istanbul is the normalization of relations between the two countries suffering from a crisis during the recent months the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported citing sources in the Israeli government.
"I hope that the economic and political talks will allow returning the important relations between Israel and its Turkish strategic partner to the previous course," Ben-Eliezer said.
He said that Israel has special relations with Turkey as a regional and democratic Muslim power.
Turkey and Israel are military and political partners, who worked closely in the military field up to the last period.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated due to the military operation carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 - January 2009, RIA Novosti reported.
In October, Turkey abolished the international trainings "Anatolian Eagle", in which the Israeli Air Force was supposed to attend. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan explained the abolition of the maneuvers as 'taking into account public opinion'.
Another important topic of discussion during Ben-Eliezer's visit is the resumption of Turkish mediation in the negotiations between Israel and Syria.
Despite the fact that Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has rejected Ankara's further mediation in the Arab-Israeli peace process because of the flat comments of the Turkish Government, in Ankara Ben-Eliezer expressed the desire of his country once again to see Turkey as the major negotiator in relations with Damascus.
If you want to play the role more than a mediator in the bilateral negotiations, Ankara remains the key negotiator between pro-Iranian Syria and Israel over the release of Syrian territories - the Golan Heights, Eran said.
But Eran thinks that the resumption of negotiations with Syria now depends on the decisions of the Israeli government - whether it wishes to negotiate with Damascus and what the program of talks will be and whether Damascus agrees to it.
Regarding with Turkey's position in the negotiations, Eran reserved a role of a key player for Ankara, mainly due to the progress in relations with Syria and Iran in the last three months.
"Turkey is sure to be able to put pressure on Syria and to make a positive contribution to the negotiations. But the question is whether the Turkish leadership wants to play a greater role than just a mediator in bilateral negotiations", Eran said.