Did Erdogan Really Accept Netanyahu's Apology?
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accepted the Israeli apology for the Mavi Marmara incident, but sticks to the same anti-Israeli rhetoric as before, writes Arad Nir.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan could have been expected to restrain his rhetoric to some extent following the apology by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the killing of Turkish civilians in the [May 2010 Israeli raid on the Mavi] Marmara flotilla. However, Erdogan’s statements in the past few days have provoked a sense of discomfort in large parts of the Israeli public.
The Turkish Prime Minister said that as long as Israel did not fully comply with his conditions, that is, compensation for the families of the Marmara victims, as well as the lifting of the blockade on Gaza, the relations between Israel and Turkey would not be fully restored. There will be no normalization without these, Erdogan stated on March 24.
