Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said that his country has no reconciliation agreement with Israel over compensation payments for the families of those killed when the IDF boarded the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish media reports.
"Yediot Ahronot" reported last week that Israel has agreed to pay $100,000 compensation to each bereaved family. However, Davutoglu strenuously denied the report as pure speculation. He added that Turkey is sticking by its demand that in addition to compensation, Israel also apologizes for the incident.
The Turkish newspaper "Today Zaman" claims that a senior Turkish government source said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to move towards normalization between the two countries at talks in Geneva, and nor is the IDF against compensation payments, but Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak do not share Netanyahu's opinion.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 12, 2010
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