Turkey-Israel: East Bazaar

Pyotr Lyukimson, Israel. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

Israel and Turkey established a joint commission on defining a compensation sum which the Jewish state would pay to Ankara for death of its citizens on “Mavi-Marmara.” The Foreign Ministry of Israel states that a year ago two countries reached an agreement that the compensation for the incident on Mavi-Marmara would be paid not directly to families of the deceased, but to a humanitarian fund controlled by the Turkish government. One of officials of the Foreign Ministry told Vestnik Kavkaza that the compensation sum was $100 thousand per every deceased, i.e. $1.1 million in general.

Turkey’s demand to pay a million dollars per every deceased shocked Israel and caused its indignation. Instead the Internal Ministry and the Ministry of Justice of Israel offered Turkey to pay the compensation equal to the sum paid by Turkey to its victims of terrorism – about $70 thousand.

The head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry Ahmed Davutoglu and the minister of justice of Israel Tzipi Livni couldn’t agree on the compensation sum, and it was decided to establish a commission. Meanwhile, Premier of Turkey Recep Erdogan stated that Israel agreed to cancel embargo on trading with Gaza. According to him, it actually means raising the blockade. Erdogan emphasized that there will be no normalization of relations with Israel until it rejects conditions of Turkey.

While Turkey celebrates “a victory over Israel,” Israel is attentively following Ankara and Istanbul. Israeli newspapers publish photos of banners on Turkish streets, on which Erdogan rises over degraded Israeli Premier Netanyahu, republish Turkish articles which praise “the political triumph” of Erdogan and draw cartoons on Netanyahu.

At first the majority of the Israeli society welcomed peacemaking with Turkey, but today the tendency has changed. More and more Israelis express indignation that Netanyahu allowed “national humiliation” and are sure that Erdogan is trying “to put Israel on knees.”