ANKARA
A spokesperson with the Turkish Foreign Ministry denied Sunday a media report that Israel was set to offer Turkey weapons and military technology in return for access to an airbase near the Turkish capital for training.
"These reports have nothing to do with the reality. They are speculative and malicious," Levent Gumrukcu, the spokesperson, told the Anadolu Agency.
An Israeli delegation was expected to arrive in Turkey on Monday to discuss details of Israel's pledge to redress families of the victims from a 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, one of Turkey's demands to agree to the normalization of relations after the Jewish state extended an official apology for the killing of nine Turkish nationals aboard the Mavi Marmara ship, the lead vessel in the aid convoy.
British daily the Times has alleged that the Israeli delegation headed by Yaakov Amidror, the cheif of Israel's National Security Council, would propose trading advanced missile defense systems including Arrow anti-balistic missiles, and state-of-the-art surveillance technology in return to use for training Akinci Airbase, some 35 kilometers northwest of the Turkish capital, Ankara, for a possible attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
A 1996 agreement between Turkey and Israel allowed Israeli Air Forces to use the Akinci Airbase and Turkish Air Forces to use an Israeli airbase in the Negev Desert. The agreement, along with other military deals, was cancelled by Turkey after the Mavi Marmara incident.
