Israel, Turkey said in talks to repair relations, return envoys

Israel and Turkey are holding backchannel talks in a bid to restore the all-but-severed diplomatic relations between the two nations.

After the violent protests on the Gaza border in May in which over 60 Palestinians, most of them members of Hamas and other terror groups, were killed, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan placed the blame for the deaths squarely on Israel, calling it a “terrorist state” that commits “genocide.” Turkey recalled its ambassador and expelled Israel’s ambassador, Eitan Na’eh, and consul in Istanbul.

Israel responded at the time by expelling Turkey’s consul-general in Jerusalem and summoning the country’s deputy ambassador in Tel Aviv for a dressing down.