Turkey's Foreign Minister walked out of a U.N. sponsored symposium on international counter-terrorism cooperation just moments before Israeli Deputy Foreign Ministter Danny Ayalon was set to make a speech. Commenting on Davutoglu's departure before his speech, Daniel Ayalon stated he was sorry that "not all NATO members see fit to cooperate with Israel in the session." French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini also spoke at the conference. The incident was one more in a series of steps taken by the Turkish government against Israel in the ongoing deterioration in ties between Ankara and Jerusalem. Turkey downgraded ties with Israel over the latter's refusal to apologize for the raid on the Mavi Marmara boat last year in which 9 Turkish activists were killed. Israel expressed regret over the incident and expressed willingness to pay compensation to the victims' families.
