Post date: Mar 23, 2013 4:44:28 PM
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan welcomes an apology by Israel over nine deaths caused by a raid on Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010 and says he will visitHamas-controlled Gaza.
ANKARA, TURKEY (MARCH 23, 2013) (PRIME MINISTRY) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday (March 23) welcomed an Israeli apology for killing nine Turkish citizens in a 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, and said he would make a trip to Gaza.
"The statement of apology with the main topics is mentioned in the way we wanted," Erdogan told journalists."Before this announcement, they were using statements like 'sad event'. However, we told them that they have to apologise. Finally we have achieved this," he said.
Israel bowed to a long-standing demand by Ankara, once a close strategic partner, to apologise formally for the deaths aboard the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara. Israeli marines had intercepted the flotilla carrying activists who challenged Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip.
An official Israeli statement said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed an apology to the Turkish people for any error that may have led to the loss of life, and agreed to provide compensation.
In Turkey, Erdogan's success in obtaining an Israeli apology has been viewed as a diplomatic coup, although the deal fell short of meeting his earlier insistence that Israel remove a blockade on Gaza that it imposed when Hamas Islamists rose to power there.
On Saturday, Erdogan suggested Israel had now agreed to lift the blockade.
"The only part that was not accepted (earlier) was the embargo. Now during this process, they accepted lifting of the embargo," Erdogan said.
Israel has said, however, that it undertook to ease conditions in the Palestinian territories should the situation allow, and that Netanyahu and Erdogan had pledged to work together to improve the humanitarian situation in Palestinian areas, including Gaza.
Erdogan also announced a trip to Gaza in April.
"During the upcoming month, in April, I will probably make a trip to Gaza, and will make a visit to the West Bank. All those efforts are to help find a solution to the peace process," he said.
The rapprochement between Turkey and Israel could help regional coordination to contain spillover from the Syrian civil war and ease Israel's diplomatic isolation in the Middle East as it faces challenges posed by Iran's nuclear programme.