Το Ισραήλ ζήτησε συγνώμη από την Τουρκία για το Μαβί Μαρμαρά

Israel PM apologized to Turkey PM over flotilla deaths

JERUSALEM/ANKARA  Hurriyet-DailyNews 22-3-2013

The Mavi Marmara is the Turkish aid ship that was boarded by Israeli commandos while attempting to break the blockade on Gaza. 

Official sources from the Turkish Prime Ministry has confirmed that Israel has apologized to Turkey for the deaths of nine Turks in a 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, Turkish state news agency has reported.
Netanyahu talked with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdoğan earlier in the day in a telephone call engineered by U.S. President Barack Obama during a visit to Israel, looking to restore badly impaired ties between the two U.S. allies.

Turkish Prime Ministry statement

The Turkish Prime Ministry issued a statement, saying the two prime ministers had agreed to conclude agreements on compensation and non-liability over the Mavi Marmara flotilla raid, Anatolia news agency has reported.

"Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has issued his apologies on behalf of his state and the Turkish prime minister has accepted his apology in the name of the Turkish people," the statement said.

"Restrictive measures over the entrance of goods into the Palestinian Authority's territories have been lifted starting today, and this position will be maintained as long as tranquility is preserved,” the statement said.

Israeli statement

"Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed an apology to the Turkish people for any error that may have led to the loss of life, and agreed to complete the agreement for compensation," the Israeli statement said.

"Turkish Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan accepted the apology on behalf of Turkey."

The prime ministers of Israel and Turkey spoke by telephone on Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama said, ending his visit to Israel with the announcement of a diplomatic breakthrough between the two divided U.S. allies.

Relations between Israel and its former strategic partner, Turkey, were badly frayed in 2010 when Israeli marines killed nine Turkish activists after boarding a boat challenging Israel's naval blockade of the Hamas Islamist-run Gaza Strip.

White House statement

In a statement released by the White House only minutes before Obama flew out of Tel Aviv to Jordan on Air Force One, the president said Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone on Friday, Reuters has reported.

"The United States deeply values our close partnerships with both Turkey and Israel, and we attach great importance to the restoration of positive relations between them in order to advance regional peace and security," Obama said.

"I am hopeful that today's exchange between the two leaders will enable them to engage in deeper cooperation on this and a range of other challenges and opportunities," he added.

Turkey's demand for formal apology

Turkey has demanded a formal apology from Israel over the deadly naval raid, compensation for victims and their families and for the Gaza blockade to be lifted.

Ankara expelled Israel's ambassador and froze military cooperation after a U.N. report into the incident, released in September 2011, largely exonerated the Jewish state.

Israel has voiced "regret", short of the full apology demanded, and has offered to pay into what it called a "humanitarian fund" through which casualties and relatives could be compensated.

An improvement in Israel-Turkey ties would help regional coordination to contain spillover from the Syrian civil war.

March/22/2013