Post date: May 12, 2013 12:20:49 PM
Israeli zoo sends a shipment of animals as relations between Turkey and the Jewish state improve.
RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL (RECENT - MAY 7, 2013) (REUTERS) - Zebras, deer, monkeys, and other animals were all shipped from an Israeli zoo to Izmir Park in Turkey, as relations between the two countries show signs of progress.
The animals were all shipped in specially designed containers and carried by trucks, part of an initiative by Israel's Ramat Gan Safari.Turkey cut its once extensive ties with the Jewish state after Israeli commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian Turks on an aid vessel, which was trying to breachIsrael's blockade of Gaza, a Palestinian enclave run by the Hamas Islamist group.
Ankara then 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.
But Gilad Goldstein, the curator of Ramat Gan zoo, said the move showed signs that bilateral ties were improving.
"What we see here today is a big shipment of animals from the Safari in Ramat Ganto Izmir zoo in Turkey. It actually seems like it's a result of the warmth in relationship between Israel and Turkey, actually it was planned quite a long time ago, months ago," he said.
Goldstein added that zookeepers were more interested in the welfare of animals rather than politics.
"We are zoo keepers; we have an international language amongst us. We speak the same language of animals. This is part of the plan of giving them animals that they need and for us it's part of surpluses management," he said.
The animals which were shipped this week, however, were not the first to be sent off to Turkey.
In 2008, two years before the Mavi Marra ferry incident, a six-year-old elephant was sent from Israel to Turkey to assist in their elephant breeding program.
Ramat Gan Safari, a member of the international zoological organization, hopes this latest initiative would help further promote the exchange of animal exhibits in other parks.
Last month, an Israeli delegation arrived in Turkey for the first time since 2010 to discuss compensation for the killings, fulfilling one of the conditions set by Turkeyfor normalizing ties.
Others included an apology from Israel - which was brokered by U.S. PresidentBarack Obama in March, and a call for Israel to lift its embargo on Gaza.
However, despite the measures taken, Israel has made clear it did not commit to ending its Gaza blockade as part of the reconciliation, an oft-repeated Turkish demand, saying days after the apology that it could clamp down even harder on the enclave if security is threatened.
And despite the diplomatic flurry, a full restoration of ties still appears some way off.
A rapprochement between two of Washington's main Middle Eastern allies could bolster U.S. influence in the region, help coordination to contain spillover from the Syrian civil war, and ease Israel's diplomatic isolation among its neighbours.