February 11, 2014 - 10:02 AMT
Foreign Minister says Turkey close to normalization of ties with Israel

Turkey and Israel are close to normalization of bilateral relations since the Mavi Marmara incident, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said, according to Hurriyet Daily Daily.

“There has recently been a momentum and new approach in compensation talks. We could say that most of the obstacles have been removed recently in these discussions,” Davutoğlu said in a televised interview.

Stressing that there are “positive developments” in compensation talks and that “serious progress has been achieved,” he refrained from giving an exact date for a finalization of the process.

Davutoğlu also avoided announcing the amount of compensation being discussed for the victims of the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010, but did say that the gap between what Turkey demanded and Israel offered had narrowed compared to May 2013.

“These issues will be discussed with the families [of the Mavi Marmara victims] after the outcome [of the compensation talks] is clarified,” he said.

As to Ankara’s another precondition for the normalization of ties, Davutoğlu mentioned easing of the embargo on Gaza and claimed that compensation talks and subsequent steps would be important to that end.