On Friday, Turkish President, Recap Tayyip Erdogan said that the country would like to have better ties with Israel, adding that talks at the intelligence level continued between the two sides.
Turkey and Israel have had a bitter falling out in recent years, despite strong commercial ties, expelling ambassadors in 2018. Ankara has repeatedly condemned Israel’s occupation in the West Bank and its treatment of Palestinians.
Speaking to reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul, Erdogan said Turkey had issues with “people at the top level” in Israel and that ties could have been “very different” if it were not for those issues.
“The Palestine policy is our red line. It is impossible for us to accept Israel’s Palestine policies. Their merciless acts there are unacceptable,” Erdogan said.
“If there were no issues at the top level, our ties could have been very different,” he added. “We would like to bring our ties to a better point.”
Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognise Israel in 1949. They enjoyed warm relations and strong commercial ties until Erdogan’s rise to power.
The two countries expelled each other’s top diplomats in 2018 over clashes when dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on the Gaza border. Ankara and Tel Aviv continue to trade with one another.
In August, Israel accused Turkey of giving passports to a dozen Hamas members in Istanbul, describing the move as “a very unfriendly step” which his government would raise with Turkish officials.
Hamas seized Gaza from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, and the group has fought three wars with Israel since then. Turkey says Hamas is a legitimate political movement that was elected democratically.
Turkey’s unbreakable solidarity with the Palestinians
Turkey has been voicing support for the Palestinian cause in the international realm for decades. Turkish authorities emphasize that the only way to achieve lasting peace and stability in the Middle East is through a fair and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue within the framework of international law and United Nations resolutions.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community, Israel annexed the entire city, claiming it as the self-proclaimed Jewish state’s “eternal and undivided” capital. Last year, the U.N. called the Israeli occupation in Palestine “the longest occupation” in the world.
Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Middle East conflict, with Palestinians hoping that east Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967, might eventually serve as the capital of an independent Palestinian state.
