14 Jan, 2010, Israel

In time with a Turkish-imposed ultimatum, the Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon sent on Wednesday evening an apology letter to the Turkish ambassador to Israel Oguz Celikkol.

The letter said in a part that the disputes between Israel and Turkey will be solved in a respectful and mutual manner between the two governments. There was no intention to humiliate the ambassador personal. The letter was sent in coordination with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who hopes that the affair will now come to an end.

Ayalon had summoned Celikkol to the Knesset to express outrage over a new Turkish television show that depicts Mossad agents as baby-snatchers, and in a break from the diplomatic norm, invited the press for a photo-op, during which he was seen telling the cameramen to film him and his aide sitting on tall chairs, and the Turkish envoy on a lower chair, with the Israeli flag in the middle.

The deputy minister’s previous apology for the “hazing” of Turkish ambassador Oguz Celikkol on Monday failed to calm the waters, with Turkish President Abdullah Gul quoted by the Turkish CNBC-e television on Wednesday as saying Ankara would recall its ambassador on Friday unless political tensions between the two countries were resolved.