The row between Israel and Turkey over the public humiliation of the Turkish ambassador ended on Wednesday. Israel initially declined to issue a formal apology. Turkey accepted the official statement from the Israeli Prime Minister.
Turkey has accepted an official apology from Israel over the treatment of its ambassador, with the Israeli prime minister expressing the hope it would end the latest row between the two countries.
Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, embarrassed Oguz Celikkol, the Turkish envoy, on Monday, making him sit on a low couch and removing the Turkish flag from the table in a meeting called to convey Israeli protests over a Turkish television series.
At the beginning of the conversation with the Turkish envoy, the deputy foreign minister told cameramen in Hebrew: “Pay attention that he is sitting in a lower chair … that there is only an Israeli flag on the table and that we are not smiling.”
A statement from the office of the Israeli prime minister on Wednesday said: “Prime minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu, together with foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman co-ordinated the apology letter sent by deputy foreign minister Ayalon to the Turkish ambassador and hopes this would end the affair.”
“My protest of the attacks against Israel in Turkey still stands,” Ayalon said. “However, it is not my way to insult foreign ambassadors and in the future I will clarify my position by more acceptable diplomatic means.”
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, said that his country had received the apology it “wanted and expected” from Israel over the dressing down of its ambassador.
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