Turkish media outlet Hurriyet Daily News described early on Monday the final compensation figure that Israel will provide to Turkey as part of a reconciliation deal between the two countries, years after Ankara largely froze bilateral relations in the aftermath of a U.N. report that confirmed Jerusalem’s legal interpretation of a 2010 commando raid on a Turkish vessel. The Mavi Marmara was attempting to break Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Passengers aboard the vessel – who were largely drawn from the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), a group that Turkish law enforcement recently raided over terror ties – attacked Israeli forces who boarded the ship, and nine passengers were killed in the ensuing fighting. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and officials from his Justice and Development Party (AKP) pressed for an international investigation into the incident, but were disappointed when a U.N. commission confirmed that Israel’s interdiction of the vessel was legal. Turkey had been steadily eroding its ties with the Jewish state – Erodgan famously stormed off a Davos stage in 2009 rather than continue to share it with Israeli President Shimon Peres – and Ankara responded to the report’s publication by putting relations into a deep freeze. Erdogan was widely perceived, including by Turkish media, as trying to leverage anti-Israel diplomacy in order to regionally boost Turkey’s position and his personal popularity, but the AKP’s foreign policy subsequently all but collapsed in ensuing years after a series of failed geopolitical gambles. By 2013 President Barack Obama was able to maneuver Erdogan into accepting a reconciliation deal with Israel largely on Jerusalem’s terms, though Turkish backsliding – driven in part by AKP efforts to placate hardline criticism over having folded on previous red lines – hampered negotiations on the agreement. Turkish reports published early yesterday – which come amid renewed analysis describing Ankara’s foreign policy as being in disarray – indicate that a final $20 million figure for compensation has been agreed to.

“An agreement is almost ready and is waiting for the finalization of some minor issues before being submitted to the two countries’ leadership,” a diplomatic source was quoted as saying by Hurriyet. “The amount of compensation for those who were killed and wounded in the Mavi Marmara operation, plus the damages inflicted on the vessel, will be around a few million dollars,” unnamed sources were quoted as saying in Hurriyet.

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