TIMES OF ISRAEL
‘Turkey needs Israel,’ says Erdogan as he pushes reconciliation
by AFP
January 2, 2016

Turkey must accept that it needs Israel, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday, as the two countries seek to thrash out a deal on normalizing ties. NATO member Turkey was a key regional ally of Israel until the two countries fell out over an IDF operation in the Gaza Strip in late 2008 and early 2009 and an IDF raid on a flotilla bound for Gaza a year later that killed 10 Turkish nationals. Erdogan further raised hackles in Israel with his sometimes inflammatory rhetoric towards the Jewish state, but the atmosphere has transformed following the revelation last month the two sides were making progress in secret talks to seek a rapprochement. “Israel is in need of a country like Turkey in the region,” Erdogan said in remarks to Turkish reporters published in leading dailies Saturday. “And we too must accept that we need Israel. This is a reality in the region,” said Erdogan.  READ MORE