Turkey’s ruling AKP invites Israel’s top diplomat in Ankara to traditional iftar

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has extended an invitation to the embassy’s chargé d’affaires, Amira Oron, for the iftar to be hosted on June 27, Hürriyet Daily News learned from reliable sources.
Oron accepted the invitation and will attend the iftar, officials from the Israeli Embassy in Ankara said.

The event on June 27 is the ninth such iftar the ruling AKP has hosted at their headquarters.

The invitation to Oron was extended at a time when senior officials from both Turkey and Israel said a deal had been reached to normalize ties and end a rift between the two countries dating back to 2010. 

Turkish-Israeli relations were suspended in 2010 after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stormed the Mavi Marmara, part of the Gaza-bound “Gaza Freedom Flotilla,” which was trying to break the Israeli blockade on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Ten Turkish activists were killed in the raid.

Israel, which had already offered its apologies - one of Ankara’s three conditions for a deal - for the deadly raid on the Mavi Marmara activist ship, agreed to pay $20 million to the bereaved and injured, an Israeli official told Reuters news agency.