Erdogan: Turkey needs Israel and Israel needs Turkey As Jerusalem and Ankara continue talks to nor

[Adir-M]

Erdogan: Turkey needs Israel and Israel needs Turkey

As Jerusalem and Ankara continue talks to normalize relations, Turkish President Erdogan says his country needs to accept that it needs Israel - 'this is the reality in the region.'

AFP
Published: 01.03.16, 11:27 / Israel News

Turkey must accept that it needs Israel, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday, as the two countries seek to thrash out a deal on normalizing t

NATO member Turkey was a key regional ally of Israel until the two countries fell out over the deadly storming by Israeli commandosin 2010 of a Turkish aid ship, the Mavi Marmara, bound for Gaza.

Erdogan further raised hackles in Israel with his sometimes inflammatory rhetoric towards the Jewish State. But the atmosphere was transformed following the revelation last month the two sides were making progress in secret talks to seek a rapprochement.

Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan (Photo: AFP)

"Israel is in need of a country like Turkey in the region," Erdogan said in remarks to Turkish reporters published in leading dailies Saturday.

"And we too must accept that we need Israel. This is a reality in the region," said Erdogan. "If mutual steps are implemented based on sincerity, then normalization will follow."

Ambassadors were withdrawn in the wake of the 2010 crisis and Erdogan said Turkey's three conditions for a normalization were clear - a lifting of the Gaza blockade, compensation for the Mavi Marmara victims and an apology for the incident.

Israel has already apologized and negotiations appear to have made progress on compensation, leaving the blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip the main hurdle.


Indicating possible progress on the blockade, Erdogan said Israel had suggested it would allow goods and construction materials into Gaza if they came via Turkey.

"We need to see a written text to ensure there is no deviation from the agreement," he said.

Analysts have suggested that Turkey's rapprochement with Israel has been accelerated by the need for Ankara to make up for its crisis in ties with Moscow after the shooting down of a Russian warplane.

Erdogan last month held closed-door talks with Hamas chief Khaled Mashal but it was never disclosed what the president discussed with the leader of the the Palestinian Islamist movement.

Israel also wants Turkey to prevent senior Hamas operative Salah Aruri from entering its territory and acting from there.

 

[XILLAX]

good procress for sure but no double Israel needs Turkey more than Turkey needs Israel.

 

[Solomon2]

good procress for sure but no double Israel needs Turkey more than Turkey needs Israel.

Fatal Distractions

January 8, 2016: Suddenly Turkey is an enemy of Iran and allied with Israel. This is not good for Iran but an excellent development for Israel, and most Turks.

The war in Syria, in particular the recent Russian intervention was very unpopular in Turkey. This was good for Israel because Turkey, long a foe of Russia was not happy with Russian troops fighting right on the Turkish border, Thus by the end of 2015 the Turks were discussing the resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel.

Since 2002 the Islamic government of Turkey has been battling Turkish secularists and trying to improve relations with other Islamic countries (including ancient rival Iran). This 2002 policy meant adopting an anti-Israel attitude after decades of close relations with the Jewish state.

In 2010 Turkish politicians backed themselves into a corner by supporting the Turkish radical group (IHH) that organized a convoy of ships that tried to break the Gaza blockade. Nine Turkish members of pro-Terrorist Islamic charity IHH were killed when they attacked Israeli commandos landing on one of the ships. Despite video evidence that the nine Turks attacked the Israeli commandos with metal pipes and knives, the nine are considered martyrs in Turkey and the Islamic politicians who run the government cut diplomatic (and many other) relations with Israel because Israel would not take the blame for the deaths of the nine Turks. Israel refused to do this, because it is politically impossible to take the blame when so many Israelis blame the Turks for supporting the Gaza flotilla, which was trying to open supply lines for Hamas, an organization openly dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

The major problem for the Islamic Turkish leaders was that many Turks did not back IHH or blame Israel. Five years of strained relations because of all this was finally ended because the Turks found they have a real enemy next door in Syria and could no longer afford to maintain the illusion that Israel is a problem. The Islamic terrorists that these Islamic Turkish politicians thought they would deal with proved to be uncontrollable and a growing political liability. The final straw was Russian troops moving into Syria in September and the growing threat ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and other Islamic terrorist groups were for Turkey. More Turks were becoming hostile to this “Islamic” and pro-Arab political policy. Turkey is not seeing a lot of pushback from the voters over this seemingly sudden change in official attitudes towards Israel.

 

[patientlion212]

Erdogan the polititian vs Erdogan the Muslim
Dude, Please pick aside already and stop saying BS like that, Anyways u shall be forced to do so in the few coming years

 

[T-123456]

u shall be forced to do so in the few coming years

What do you mean?

 

[xenon54 out]

Erdogan the polititian vs Erdogan the Muslim
Dude, Please pick aside already and stop saying BS like that, Anyways u shall be forced to do so in the few coming years

The whole Davos thing was a PR stunt, im actually amazed that so many people in Muslim world fell for this.
Now that the Arab league took stance against Turkish presence in Iraq and Russia actively meddling in Syria there is only one way for Erdogan to go.

 

[Solomon2]

Typical anti-Zionist behavior: people who condemn us for the "safe" political gain of getting the haters on their side, then come running to us for help when they get in trouble, yet still expect that their condemnations carry moral weight, rather than apologize publicly and profusely - both to their own people and to us - for the deadly casualties of their hate-promotion.