The latest manifestation of the tensions occurred when Turkey threatened to withdraw its ambassador to Israel if the latter country did not adequately apologize for what Turkey claims was an insult to its diplomat. In a televised meeting Monday between Turkish ambassador Oguz Celikkol and Israel’s deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon, Ayalon pointed out to a cameraman, in Hebrew, “Pay attention that he is sitting in a lower chair . . . that there is only an Israeli flag on the table and that we are not smiling.”
The Turkish ambassador had been summoned to discuss Israeli anger over a Turkish mini–series entitled The Valley of the Wolves, which reportedly shows Israeli security forces kidnapping young children and shooting old men.
Tensions between the two countries have been high even sense a public rebuke at the World Economic Forum last year by Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, directed at Israeli President Sharon over the war in Gaza.
Read more at Al Jazeera.
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