**Israel’s defence minister has gone to Turkey for talks, in the wake of a diplomatic row which has further soured relations between the two countries.**Ehud Barak met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, and will also hold discussions with his counterpart.
It comes days after Israel apologised to Turkey after a minister publicly humiliated Turkey’s ambassador.
Israeli-Turkish relations have deteriorated since Turkey condemned Israel’s Gaza offensive in 2007-08.
Despite the spat, Mr Barak was warmly greeted by Turkish military officials on his arrival in the capital, Ankara.
Among those welcoming the defence minister was the Turkish ambassador to Israel, Oguz Celikkol, whose dressing down by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon came close to breaking relations between the two countries.
Mr Celikkol was pictured in the foreign ministry seated on a lower chair, the Turkish flag removed from the table.
He was rebuked over a Turkish television drama, which depicted Israeli intelligence agents kidnapping Turkish children.
Mr Ayalon apologised after Turkey’s president threatened to recall the ambassador.
Frayed ties
Mr Barak’s visit was scheduled before the latest diplomatic row but has taken on a heightened importance.
His first stop was to pay respects at the mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey’s founding father, who is especially revered by the Turkish armed forces.
Relations between Israel and secular Muslim Turkey, already frayed, sharply deteriorated after Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly condemned Israel’s Gaza offensive.
The action, which followed years of rocket-fire from Gaza, resulted in the deaths of some 1,400 Palestinians, the UN says, and 13 Israelis.
Mr Barak will not meet Mr Erdogan during the visit.
The BBC’s Jonathan Head in Istanbul says political relations are still very strained, but there are surprisingly strong links between the two countries’ military establishments, dating back to a co-operation agreement in 1996, and Mr Barak is expected to finalise details of a long-planned sale of Israeli-made unmanned aircraft to Turkey during this visit.
But, he says, the governing party in Turkey, with its staunchly Muslim power-base, has made it clear that the close ties the two countries once had are no longer a priority.