Turkey wants unrestricted access to Gaza from Israel

It’s been nearly a week since news broke about secret talks between Turkish and Israeli officials in a bid to accomplish the normalization process by sealing a long-negotiated deal. Having already secured a formal apology, Turkey has long been waiting for Israel to fulfill the remaining two conditions: paying compensation to the families of the Mavi Marmara victims and removing the blockade on Gaza.

However, a leaked document on Israeli media has suggested that the talks also included negotiations on some Hamas members allegedly residing in Turkey and carrying Israeli natural gas through pipelines via Turkey.

In a meeting with a senior government official, I had to chance to better understand how Turkey views these talks and whether this leaked information was real. Therefore, the information I will cite here is how Ankara regards the process:

From the very beginning of Israeli-Turkish negotiations, Turkey had insisted on three conditions and this position is still valid. Israel formally apologized to Turkey and is ready to pay the compensation as agreed. The last condition is the removal of the blockade on Gaza. Turkey’s condition from Israel is to get “unrestricted access” to Gaza for its all sorts of assistance to Palestinians. Turkey is determined to not accept any sort of restriction on Turkish assistance to Gaza.

The Hamas condition, as suggested by the Israeli media, does not exist. Ankara believes that Israel leaked this distorted information to the media with the purpose of measuring public reaction and to show Israeli public opinion that Israel is forcing Turkey to deport Saleeh al-Aruri, although this person was not in Turkey. 

Otherwise, ongoing talks of an agreement with Israel do not include anything on Hamas........http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-wants-unrestricted-access-to-gaza-from-israel-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=93030&NewsCatID=429
26/12/15
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