The Turkish Mavi Marmara vessel, which sought to break the blockade of Gaza in 2010. Turkey demands that Israel issue an apology and compensate the families of those who were killed in clashes in the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla incident. Photo: Free Gaza movement via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Turkey has no plans to normalize its ties with Israel unless specific conditions are met, said a spokesman for Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday.

“Turkey – Israel relations will not normalize until Israel realizes the three conditions. We have not given up on these,” Ibrahim Kalin said, Reuters reported.

Turkey demands that Israel issue an apology and compensate the families of those who were killed in clashes in the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla incident. The third request is that Israel lift the blockade on Gaza which is intended to restrict the movement of weapons to Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

“Turkey will continue to play its role until a two-state solution is reached, and the Palestinian people have their own state. There cannot be permanent peace in the region until the Palestinian problem is solved,” Kalin said.

In recent weeks, Turkey was reportedly moving closer to normalizing relations with Israel following a meeting in Switzerland this month with head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Yossi Cohen, Israeli envoy Joseph Ciechanover and Turkish foreign ministry under-secretary Feridun Sinirlioglu.