Restoring Turkey-Israel relations – Will Erdoğan’s pretensions to support the Palestinian cause stand still?
Turkey and Israel have announced the full restoration of relations, including the return of their ambassadors to Ankara and Tel Aviv. This brings to an end a four-year diplomatic crisis that led to the deterioration of relations between the two non-Arab countries in the Middle East.
The agreement was reached on Tuesday in a telephone conversation between the Directors General of the Israeli and Turkish Foreign Ministries.
Full diplomatic representation
Turkey decided to raise the level of relations to full diplomatic representation and to return the Turkish ambassador and consul general to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel also took the same measures with the return of the Israeli ambassador and consul general to Ankara and Istanbul. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid confirmed that the return of relations with Turkey is something that increases regional stability and economic benefits for the Israeli citizen, according to the international newspaper Axios. Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu confirmed at a press conference in Ankara that Turkey will appoint an Israeli ambassador soon, and the two countries will hold a joint economic meeting in the coming weeks. According to the newspaper, a few hours after the announcement, Lapid talked with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He supports the development of cooperation and dialog between Turkey and Israel “on a sustainable basis and on the basis of mutual sensitivities.”
Decade of crisis
Israeli-Turkish relations have been in a series of crises over the past decade, most recently in 2018 when the United States moved its embassy to Jerusalem and Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador from Ankara.
It continued: Erdogan spoke on the phone in July 2012 to congratulate Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog on his first direct contact with Israel. They spoke on the phone several times and Herzog met Erdogan in Ankara in March.
Ignore Gaza
The newspaper noted that after Israel and Turkey signed a civil aviation agreement last month and several days after Lapid was sworn in as prime minister, he had his first phone call with Erdogan, where Israeli officials confirmed that Lapid wanted to move slowly in the return of relations with Turkey and wanted to see tangible results first. The civil aviation agreement, along with Turkish efforts to combat terrorism and what was seen as Turkey’s disciplined response to the recent Gaza operation, led to a decision to move forward. Observers believe that Turkey may abandon its support for the Palestinians. Despite the recent bombing of Gaza and the killing of dozens of civilians, most of them children and women, Turkey has continued to strengthen its relations with Israel, which made the Turkish-backed militias in Gaza wonder whether Erdogan will continue his flimsy slogans in support of the Palestinian cause.
