Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told US Jewish leaders he intends to improve ties with Israel and confirmed that talks on the subject were taking place in Geneva, they said Sunday. Erdogan met representatives of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations in Ankara on Tuesday, top officials from the group said. "He talked about the fact that there is currently a thaw in the relationship between Turkey and Israel, and his hope is that that thaw will continue to get warmer and the relationship will get closer," Stephen Greenberg, chairman of the Jewish group, told reporters before a conference in Jerusalem. Israeli officials have declined to comment, and the Turkish foreign ministry has said it would neither confirm nor deny the new talks in Geneva that were taking place last week. Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Jewish group who also attended the meeting with Erdogan, said the Turkish leader spoke of the talks with them. "He certainly talked in a positive way about the negotiations, and he said some of the issues are for the negotiators in Geneva," Hoenlein said. NATO member Turkey was a key regional ally of Israel until the two countries fell out in 2010 over the Mavi Marmara flotilla, which attempted to break Israel's legal naval blockade on Gaza. When IDF soldiers were forced to board the Turkish ship, they were attacked by Islamist extremists armed with knives and metal bars and had to use lethal force to defend their lives. Erdogan further raised hackles in Israel with his aggressive, inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric. But with Turkey now becoming increasingly isolated he had begun to strike a more conciliatory tone . The atmosphere was transformed following the revelation in December that the two sides had met that month in secret talks to seek a rapprochement. The Geneva talks reportedly began on Wednesday and were thought to be the first since the December meeting. It is unclear if they are still ongoing. Turkey has repeatedly made clear three conditions for a normalization of relations: the lifting of the Gaza blockade, compensation for the Islamists killed while violently attacking IDF forces on the Marmara, and an "apology" from Israel for the incident. Israel has already apologized and negotiations appear to have made progress on compensation, leaving the blockade on the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza the main sticking point. The blockade is in place to prevent terrorists from obtaining advanced weaponry, and it is unclear what, if any, mechanisms Erdogan is suggesting in place of it. The Jewish leaders also met Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last week and spoke of cooperation with Israel, particularly on security. AFP contributed to this report.
