ANKARA (PIC)– Israel’s deputy premier Sylvan Shalom has reiterated his government’s refusal to apologize to Turkey over the killing of nine of its nationals in the Israeli navy attack on the Freedom Flotilla that was carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza in May 2010.
He told the semiofficial Turkish news agency Anatolia “We have said more than once we want good relations with Turkey” but if Turkey insisted on its request for an apology no progress would be made in those relations.
Shalom said that Turkey was the one that changed its policy toward Israel.
For his part Benjamin Netanyahu the Israeli premier said that the diplomatic crisis between Ankara and Tel Aviv should be resolved the soonest. He added that a new page has to be turned in their bilateral relations.
