The negotiations that have been continuing between Turkey and Israel for a while are on the verge of being finalized. Obviously, an agreement will be reached and both parties are resolute to re-establish diplomatic relations. Even though the Israeli press suggests that there is a conclusive agreement, according to Haaretz reports, the information I obtained from senior officials is that negotiations are ongoing.
With U.S. President Barack Obama's insistence, Israel apologized to Turkey in 2013 for the 2010 raid on the Mavi Marmara - a Gaza-bound Turkish humanitarian flotilla. This was a great turning point for Israel, which had claimed no responsibility for the crimes it had committed since it was founded. This was the first time that it admitted it was in the wrong and apologized in front of the international community. This development alone revealed Turkey's importance for Israel.
However, the international siege that started with the Gezi Park uprisings and the expectations that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, at the time as prime minister, would be toppled delayed the continuation of this apology. The election victory that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) won by receiving 49.5 percent of the vote in the Nov. 1 elections must have showed to Tel Aviv that what was done in Egypt would not be possible in Turkey. The negotiations that have been ongoing for one-and-a-half years are nearing an end and Israel has begun talking about the two preconditions that Ankara imposed apart from the apology.
The topic of compensation for the families of the victims of the Mavi Marmara raid, regardless of how much Israel would pay, would not resurrect the victims. This compensation was important not in terms of its material aspect, but in terms of Israel taking responsibility, acknowledging its crime and paying for it. It appears that progress has been made on this as well and, if it is realized, it will be a first in the history of Israel.
As Gaza is blockaded from land, air and sea by Israel, it has been described as the largest open-air prison in the world. In this regard, Israel proposes to facilitate for Turkey the transfer of all kinds of aid materials and goods to Gaza. Even though the Turkish committee considers this an option to overcome the embargo, it is aware that Israel has not removed the embargo completely. That is why this condition is said to be the one where the negotiations have come to a deadlock.Even though the partial fulfillment of the third condition is considered important for the relief of Gazans, the Turkish committee's decision on the matter should not be perceived as a concession, and the Hamas administration should support this. A Turkish official told me the Hamas administration has been kept in touch with since the beginning of the negotiations.
Certainly, the most important topic that concerns me, the Muslim world community and victims' families, is the criminal cases for those who are responsible for the Mavi Marmara massacre to stand trial. Concerning this, Israel expects a legal and irreversible guarantee of immunity to be approved by Turkey's Parliament. As far as I understand, as the government and Erdoğan are sensitive to the matter, they regard it as an issue between families and Turkish law. I hope this sensitivity will continue.
I care about two more points of the agreement. The first one is that Turkey has been considerably "purified" of Israel and "freed" in some way since Erdoğan criticized Israel's polices on Gaza, saying "one minute" to then Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres in Davos five years ago. Regardless of what the result will be, the current Turkish government is aware that Turkish-Israeli relations cannot resume as if nothing happened. Even though Turkey was a country whose military technology and bureaucracy was intervened in and even directed from the outside in the past, it is now at the table with Israel as two equal interlocutors, and Ankara will not compromise on this path in any circumstance.
Secondly, as we have increasingly felt over the past five years that if Turkey continues talks with Israel rather than cutting off all diplomatic ties with the country, it will serve the Palestinian cause in a more active way. When Erdoğan responded to Israel with his "one minute," Turkish-Israeli relations were on quite good terms. This was why Erdoğan and Peres sat next to each other in the same session and Erdoğan's reprimand rocked the world as it was a first, and Turkey is a Muslim country that had relations with Israel. Last year, however, Erdoğan criticized Israel in a much more severe manner, calling it a terrorist state. You most probably do not remember this, as it was not found newsworthy by many foreign media outlets. What I am talking about is this difference.
We now see more clearly that Israel is a country that cannot run the risk of losing. Both Hamas and Fatah might prefer Turkey's embracement of Palestine with this self-confident power.
