Israel to pay Turkey compensation worth $20 million
By Gunay Hasanova
Israel will pay Turkey compensation in the amount of $20 million for the incident with the "Freedom Flotilla," said Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, Yenisafak newspaper reported.
He said that this amount will be paid in the coming 25 days.
Relations between the two countries crumbled after Israeli marines stormed a Turkish ship in May 2010 to enforce a naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, killing 10 Turks on board.
Turkish President Erdogan denounced the killing as “state terrorism” and withdrew the Turkish ambassador from Israel and later expelled Israel’s ambassador to Ankara.
Turkey and Israel began talks to restore diplomatic ties in December 2015.
One of Turkey’s original demands for a deal was that Israel ends its blockade of Gaza. Turkey backed away from the demand have extracted some concessions from Israel over allowing access to Gaza.
Earlier, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim reported that Israel accepted all the conditions to normalize relations with Turkey.
An agreement on the normalization of relations between Turkey and Israel was signed on June 28, 2016. The deal will allow Turkey to build a 200-bed hospital in Gaza and invest in other infrastructure projects.
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