ANKARA: Israel and Turkey proclaimed a new era in relations following more than a decade of diplomatic rupture, as Israeli President Isaac Herzog made a landmark visit to Ankara.
Herzog’s Turkey trip, which included talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was the first by an Israeli president since 2007, when the late Shimon Peres addressed the Turkish parliament.
Ties then plummeted, but Erdogan, standing alongside the Israeli president, proclaimed that Herzog’s “historic visit will be a turning point in our relations.”
“Our mutual goal is to revive dialogue based on respect,” added Erdogan, who is a vocal champion of the Palestinian cause.
Herzog, who holds a traditionally ceremonial position but has taken on an outsized diplomatic role since his July inauguration, conceded that Israel-Turkey ties “underwent a drought.”
“The baggage of the past never disappears of its own accord, but we...are choosing to embark on a journey of trust and respect,” he said.
“We must agree in advance that we will not agree on everything.”
Relations began to fray following an Israeli military operation in Gaza in 2008.
Ties then froze following the death of 10 civilians following an Israeli raid on the Turkish Mavi Marmara ship, part of a flotilla trying to breach a blockade by carrying aid into Gaza in 2010.
A 2016 reconciliation agreement that saw the return of ambassadors all but collapsed in 2018 in the wake of Gaza border clashes that killed dozens of Palestinians.
Herzog was received in a snowy Ankara with a military honour guard at the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk mausoleum, where he wrote an inscription praising Turkey’s first president for choosing “the path of collaboration.”
The presidents then held bilateral talks and were then due to partake in a state dinner.
Erdogan said he raised “the Palestine issue,” and Turkey’s interest in seeing “improvement in the social and political status of Palestinians.”
Turkey has maintained ties with Hamas Islamists who have controlled Gaza since 2007, and are considered a terrorist organisation by Israel and much of the West.
Hamas condemned Turkey for welcoming “the Zionist occupation president.”
