Turkey and Israel Trust Each Other Again, Maybe
On May 31, 2010, a senior Turkish diplomat was awaiting a phone call from his Israeli counterpart. They were supposed to schedule a secret meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in Washington to solve an issue haunting bilateral relations between their two countries. Davutoğlu was on a trip in South Africa and Netanyahu was in Canada, while the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish-owned ship that was a part of an international coalition attempting to breach the blockade to Gaza, was about to leave port in Istanbul.
The Turkish diplomat did not receive the phone call he was eagerly awaiting. Instead, he was interrupted by his wife, who told him to turn on the TV. The news that broke into the regular broadcast was worrying: The Mavi Marmara was raided by Israeli commandos, and casualties were reported. “Nobody, neither us nor Israelis, expected this to happen. Both parties wanted to settle this issue quietly and, actually, we were taking it lightly. But it went out of control,” he noted. Turkey and Israel severed relations over that bloody incident in the Mediterranean Sea that killed 10 Turkish nationals, injured dozens of passengers, and resulted in a number of IDF soldiers being wounded.
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