When National Security
Council head Yaakov Amidror arrives in Turkey on Sunday to discuss
compensation for flotilla victims, he will also be seeking to lay the
groundwork for the stationing of Israeli fighter jets in an airbase near
Ankara, ahead of a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the
Sunday Times reported.

“Until the recent
crisis, Turkey was our biggest aircraft carrier,” an Israeli military
source told the London-based publication. “Using the Turkish airbases
could make the difference between success and failure once a showdown
with Iran gets underway.”

“Iran is warning openly
about its intentions to destroy us and is working with all its might to
carry it out,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a Holocaust
Remembrance ceremony in Jerusalem earlier this month. “We won’t leave
our fate in the hands of others, even the best of our friends,” he added
alluding to the US’s promise to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear
weapons.

According to the Sunday
Times report, Amidror is expected to offer Turkey advanced missile and
surveillance technology in exchange for a base and training facilities
at Akinci air base, northwest of Ankara. The move would see a resumption
of the arrangement that was established in 1996 and remained in place
until the two countries all but severed ties in the wake of the May 2010
raid on the Mavi Marmara, when Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish
nationals during the takeover of the vessel which was trying to reach
Gaza.

A wary reconciliation
between the two former allies was brokered by US President Barack Obama
during the final moments of his visit to Israel last month. Just minutes
before boarding Air Force One, Obama handed Netanyahu the phone and
heard him apologize to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for
any “operational errors” made by Israel during the Mavi Marmara
incident.

Amidror will reportedly
be arriving in Ankara with a proposal to sell Turkey a variety of
Israeli-developed weapons and military equipment, including Arrow
anti-ballistic missiles, an advanced visual intelligence system
developed by Elop, and an electronic warfare system made by Elta. The
latter two systems were reportedly sent to Turkey for testing before
bi-lateral ties deteriorated.

“The Israeli defense
establishment has been lobbying hard for the politicians to find a form
of apology, in order to restore the Israeli-Turkish alliance against
Syria and Iran,” an Israeli defense source told the Sunday Times.
“Turkey is very worried by Iran’s missile ambitions — countering this
independently would take them years. With Israeli know-how based on the
Jericho ballistic missiles, the time-frame will be cut short.”

“Turkey is talking about
full normalization and a return of ties to the way they were before,”
Turkey’s deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc told Maariv in an interview
published on Wednesday. “I expect the talks to succeed. Normalization
between Israel and Turkey will increase the chances of regional peace.”

Arinc said that Israel’s
apology over the flotilla incident and acquiescence to Turkey’s other
demands of paying compensation to the families of those who died, as
well as easing the blockade on Gaza, have paved the way for
re-establishing ties that broke off after the incident.

On Saturday, however,
families of the Marmara victims objected to compensation talks with
Israel, saying the Jewish state must first fully lift its blockade of
the Gaza Strip.

The relatives also said
they would not drop lawsuits filed against former Israeli military
commanders they hold responsible for the deaths.

Earlier this month, an
Istanbul court heard the charges that were filed against four of the
most senior retired IDF commanders, including former chief of staff Gabi
Ashkenazi, in absentia. Israel has characterized the case as a
politically motivated stunt.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-seeks-turkish-airbase-to-enable-iran-strike/

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