A lawmaker from Turkish ruling party said on Thursday that any tension in Turkey-Israel relations was affecting Turkey’s relations with the United States.
Suat Kiniklioglu, an MP from the ruling Justice & Development (AK) Party and the chairman of Turkish-U.S. Parliamentary Friendship Group, said that Turkey rushed to help Israel in the wake of a recent fire disaster, which he defined as a possible opportunity to normalize bilateral relations.
"However, if Israel fails to make use of it and does not take any steps, I think we may enter a ’cold peace’ era, which is a period in which the level of representation is too low, relations are in the minimum level and political dialogue is too limited," Kiniklioglu told AA correspondent.
Kiniklioglu said that Turkey-Israel relations had been seriously harmed with the Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, and they could be boosted only if some steps were taken.
Israeli navy attacked on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May 2010, killing nine Turks and wounding at least 30 people.
Kiniklioglu said Turkey would continue to contribute to re-integration and re-construction process in the region, and Israel would itself decide at what point of the process it would be.
The Turkish lawmaker said any tension in Turkey-Israel relations was affecting Turkey’s relations with the United States, and sometimes Turkey needed to recall the U.S. executives that they were two separate issues.
Kiniklioglu said some U.S. circles who supported Israel tended to be more fanatic than the Israeli state from time to time.
The lawmaker welcomed appointment of a new U.S. ambassador to Turkey, and also the fact that a resolution on the incidents of 1915 had not been brought to the U.S. House of Representatives.
"We wish that such tensions and initiatives, we experience every year, would end from now on," Kiniklioglu said.
Kiniklioglu appreciated U.S. President Barack Obama’s stance on such initiatives, and said Turkey-USA relations could not be sacrificed to domestic policy purposes.
The Turkish lawmaker hoped that new U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis Joseph Ricciardone would work to boost bilateral relations.