- Discussions between the leaders of Israel and Turkey were held.
- Relations between the two nations became closer.
- Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met.
Face-to-face discussions between the leaders of Israel and Turkey were held for the first time since 2008 as relations between the two nations became closer.
According to a statement from Lapid’s office, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met on Tuesday outside of the UN General Assembly.
Relations between Israel and Turkey, which had previously been chilly due to disagreements over the Palestinian problem, have thawed up recently, with energy emerging as a potential focal point of collaboration.
In August, the two nations formally reestablished full diplomatic ties, which included an ambassadorial exchange.
In addition to talking about energy, Lapid thanked Erdogan for sharing intelligence with both countries and brought up Israel’s demand for the return of four of its citizens, including two soldiers, who have been missing in the blockaded Gaza Strip since a 2014 war, according to a statement from Lapid’s office on Tuesday.
Members of the Palestinian movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, have been staying in Turkey, a NATO member. In attempts to mend relations between Israel and Turkey, that relationship has frequently been a stumbling block.
Tangled ties
Since the 2008–2009 Gaza War and the deaths of nine Turkish civilians in an Israeli raid on the Turkish Mavi Marmara rescue ship in 2010 when it was attempting to break the blockade on Gaza, relations between the two sides have been strained.
On stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos in March 2009, Erdogan loudly denounced former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres and his nation’s policy toward Palestine following the Gaza War.
Ambassadors returned following a reconciliation attempt in 2016, but it broke down following Israel’s response to the 2018–2019 border demonstrations in Gaza, which saw more than 260 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. Israel’s representative was instructed to leave Turkey in 2018 after Turkey called back its diplomats.
The most recent reconciliation prompted Israeli President Isaac Herzog to travel to Turkey in March.
Mevlut Cavusoglu, the foreign minister of Turkey, was in Jerusalem in late May when Yair Lapid, his counterpart, hailed a “new chapter” in bilateral relations.
[embedpost slug=”musharraf-era-minister-leading-pakistani-delegation-during-visit-to-israel-claims-qasim-suri”]
