Israeli president Herzog in rare visit to Turkey

ISTANBUL

Israeli President Isaac Herzog started his two-day state visit for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at a moment when the two countries are exerting joint efforts to normalize their ties.

Herzog and his wife, Michal Herzog, started their visit in Ankara on March 9 before departing to Istanbul to meet members of the Jewish community on March 10.

The visit comes amid efforts of the two countries to mend the disrupted bilateral ties and launch a new process for reconciling them. The process includes exchanging ambassadors and increasing the level of diplomatic representation and exploring potential cooperation areas, especially in the field of economy, trade, mutual investments and energy.

“The two presidents will discuss various bilateral issues, including Israel-Turkey relations and the potential for expanding collaboration between their respective states and peoples in various fields,” a statement issued by the Israeli presidency said.

Herzog is the first Israeli leader visiting Turkey since 2008. 

Turkey and Israel have been in talks since last year for the normalization of ties. Erdoğan and Herzog held phone conversations to discuss the ties and ways to mend them by exchanging ambassadors after a four-year incommunicado.

Turkey had withdrawn its ambassador and asked Israel to do the same after Israeli security forces had killed scores of Palestinians who were protesting Washington’s decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem under the Trump administration.

The unproportioned use of force by the Israeli security forces against the Palestinian protestors and killing scores of them have been strongly reacted by Turkey in 2018. The two countries had cut normal diplomatic contacts since then.

The normalization of the ties will also help the two countries to explore how to cooperate on energy and transport the Israeli natural gas to the European markets via Turkey.

The EastMed pipeline project that aimed to bring natural gas from Israel directly to Europe cannot be materialized without Turkey, Erdoğan said on Jan. 17, noting that Turkey is eager to resume talks.