Yahoo – AFP, Katy Lee, June 27, 2016
Istanbul (AFP) - Turkey launched a major diplomatic charm offensive Monday, reaching out a conciliatory hand to Russia and hailing a deal to restore ties with Israel as it looks to boost its neighbourhood clout.
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| Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim delivers a speech during a press conference after a Turkish-Israeli meeting, at the Cankaya Palace in Ankara, on June 27, 2016 (AFP Photo/Adem Altan) |
Istanbul (AFP) - Turkey launched a major diplomatic charm offensive Monday, reaching out a conciliatory hand to Russia and hailing a deal to restore ties with Israel as it looks to boost its neighbourhood clout.
The Kremlin
said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had apologised to his counterpart
Vladimir Putin over the downing of a Russian military jet in Syria last
November, which shattered ties between the two nations.
Just hours
earlier, the prime ministers of Turkey and Israel had revealed details of an
agreement ending six years of acrimony following a commando raid on a
Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left 10 Turkish activists dead.
The twin
breakthroughs come as Turkey moves back towards a policy known as "zero
problems with neighbours" following a string of diplomatic crises and with
its foe Bashar al-Assad still in power in Syria.
Patching
things up in the neighbourhood is also of crucial importance as NATO member
Turkey goes through a rocky spell with the European Union, with Western leaders
expressing concern over rising authoritarianism under Erdogan.
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A Russian
military official passes by a screen showing a live broadcast of the
opening of
the flight recorder from the Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber shot down
by a Turkish
jet on November 24, 2015 (AFP Photo/Vasily Maximov)
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'Regrets'
over downed jet
Putin had
repeatedly demanded an apology over the downed jet, and the latest move could
help end a feud that has seen Moscow slap a raft of sanctions on Ankara.
Erdogan
said late Monday that he hoped for a "quick" return to normal ties
between the two.
Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has also accepted an invitation to the Black Sea
Economic Cooperation meeting in Sochi, Russia on July 1, according to a foreign
ministry source -- another potential sign of a thaw.
Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier that Erdogan had "said sorry" in
a letter to Putin, although there was no explicit confirmation of this from the
Turkish side.
Turkey's
Anadolu state news agency cited presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin as saying
Erdogan had written to "express his regrets".
The
countries are on opposing sides in Syria, with Ankara backing rebels fighting
to topple Assad while Moscow staunchly supports his regime.
UN chief
Ban Ki-moon meanwhile hailed the Israel-Turkey deal as a "hopeful signal
for the stability of the region".
The US has
pushed for a resolution between its two longtime allies as it seeks cooperation
in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Ties went
into deep freeze in 2010 after the Israeli commando raid against activists
trying to breach the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Two of
Turkey's key conditions for normalisation -- an apology and compensation --
were met earlier, leaving its third demand, that Israel lift the blockade, as
the main obstacle.
Israel has
committed to pay $20 million to families of the slain activists, in exchange
for all claims against Israeli soldiers being dropped.
But while
Turkey has won permission to deliver aid to Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the blockade would remain in place.
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In May
2010, ten Turkish activists were killed when Israeli commandos raided
the Mavi
Marmara ship which was part of the Free Gaza flotilla (AFP Photo)
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'Nearly
no friends'
Reports in
recent days had described a compromise on the blockade issue, with Turkish aid
to be channelled through the Israeli port of Ashdod rather than directly to
Gaza.
Israel will
also reportedly allow Turkish infrastructure projects in Gaza, including the
completion of a much-needed hospital.
"Our
first ship loaded with over 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid will leave for Israel's
Ashdod port on Friday," Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a
press conference.
Yildirim
hinted at a new approach after he took over as premier in May from Ahmet
Davutoglu, who pursued an aggressive foreign policy that some analysts said brought
more problems than profit.
"It
looks to me that the new Turkish prime minister's mission is to launch a charm
offensive to undo the foreign policy wreck left behind by ousted premier
Davutoglu," Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Programme at
The Washington Institute, told AFP last week.
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Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) meets US Secretary of State John
Kerry on
June 27, 2016 at Villa Taverna, US ambassador's residence in Rome (AFP
Photo/Filippo Monteforte)
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Turkey had
also fallen out with Egypt following the military's ousting of Islamist
president Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of the government in Ankara.
Davutoglu's
initiatives resulted in Turkey ending up with "nearly no friends" in
the Middle East, Cagaptay said.
Israel had
its own incentives to patch things up as it seeks regional customers for gas
exports, with talk of a potential pipeline to Turkey.
Netanyahu,
speaking in Rome after meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry, described the
agreement as having "immense implications for the Israeli economy".
Kerry, too,
hailed it as a "positive step".
After the
deal is signed on Tuesday, the approval process will start in both countries,
and Yildirim said Ankara would appoint an ambassador to Tel Aviv within weeks.
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