Israeli minister phones Turkey on compensation issue

Israel’s new Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni, has been in touch with Ahmed Davutoglu, the Foreign Minister of Turkey, over compensation for the victims of her country’s attack on the Freedom Flotilla in 2010. Nine Turkish citizens were killed during the assault by Israeli commandos as the Flotilla was in international waters on the way to take humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip; dozens of international solidarity activists were injured in the attack. Benjamin Netanyahu apologised to Turkey’s Prime Minister for the deaths last week.

Turkey cut its diplomatic relations with Israel and downgraded most of its other relations, such as commercial and military links, in the wake of the Flotilla incident. The Anatolia news agency quoted Turkish diplomats as saying that both sides feel that an official meeting is important to discuss the compensation issue.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded that Israel should apologise to Turkey, compensate the families of the victims and lift the siege of Gaza as conditions to resume normal relations.