Turkey, Israel “to agree normalization deal over weekend”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey and Israel will this weekend announce a deal on normalizing ties, ending a years-long diplomatic crisis exacerbated by a deadly 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in which 10 Turkish nationals died, a report said Tuesday, June 21, according to AFP.

The Hurriyet daily said the two sides would make the announcement during final talks on June 26 after intensive diplomacy resulted in a compromise agreement on the partial lifting of Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The already-tense relations between former allies Israel and Turkey were significantly downgraded after Israeli commandos staged a botched pre-dawn raid on a six-ship flotilla in May 2010 as it tried to run the blockade on Gaza. Nine activists on board the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara ferry were killed, with a tenth later dying of his wounds, sparking a bitter diplomatic crisis. Several IDF soldiers were seriously wounded in the fighting aboard the ship.

Two of Turkey’s key conditions for normalization — an apology and compensation for the raid — were largely met, leaving its third demand, that Israel lift its blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, as the main obstacle.

Under the reported terms of the deal, Israel will allow the completion of a hospital in Gaza, as well as the construction of a new power station and a seawater desalination plant for drinking water, AFP says.

Israel imposed its blockade in June 2006 after Hamas fighters killed two IDF soldiers and kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid. The restrictions were tightened a year later when Hamas took control of the enclave in a violent overthrow of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority.

Meanwhile, Turkey will send aid to Gaza via the Israeli port of Ashdod rather than sending it directly to the Palestinian enclave, the paper said.