New Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Photo: Michael Gross via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – New Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Monday that there is no hope of his country “normalizing” ties with Israel unless the Jewish state ends the blockade of the Gaza Strip, Reuters reported.

In August, former Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was elected as the country’s president. Erdogan was a harsh critic of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza this summer, saying that Israel “surpassed Hitler in barbarism” and committed “genocide” against the Palestinians.

Davutoglu made his comments during an address to Turkish parliamentary deputies. Israel-Turkey relations have been frayed since the May 2010 flotilla that tried to break the Gaza blockade. Militants attacked Israeli soldiers who boarded the vessel, prompting clashes in which nine Turkish citizens were killed.