Former Israeli Ambassador to Ankara speaks at Istanbul's Kultur University

Speaking at a meeting organized by the Kultur University, Global Political Trends Center in Istanbul, former Israeli Ambassador to Ankara Elon Liel touched upon relations between Turkey and Israel yesterday. Liel said that Turkey's sensitivity about the Gaza issue was initiated by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and described the Blue Marmara incident as an issue which was dropped by the Israeli public. Liel also described the elections of November 2002 that were won by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) as the first revolution of the Middle East, which showed that both Islam and democracy could go hand in hand. He added that Turkey should set an example to the Middle East. Following the meeting, Liel answered the questions asked by the Cumhuriyet daily, saying that the crisis between Turkey and Israel causes a waste of time and that Israel has considerably developed commercial and cultural relations with Turkey and thus it is unlikely that these relations will become much worse.