Erdogan says Turkey wants better relationship with Israel

Erdogan says Turkey wants better relationship with Israel
Israel's treatment of the Palestinians remains a 'red line', however.
2 min read
26 December, 2020
Turkey and Israel expelled each other's ambassadors in 2018 [Getty]
Turkey would like to improve its relationship with Israel but not at the expense of the Palestinians, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

"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 told reporters in Istanbul.

Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognise the newly founded state of Israel in 1949, but the countries' warm diplomatic and economic ties began to deteriorate after the 2008-2009 Gaza war.

The death of nine Turkish nationals in the 2010 Israeli attack on a Gaza aid flotilla made matters worse. Although Ankara restored diplomatic ties with the country in 2016, Erdogan has remained one of Israel's fiercest critics on the world stage.

Turkey and Israel expelled one another's ambassadors in 2018 after Ankara protested against the killing of dozens of Palestinian demonstrators on the Gaza-Israel border. The two have also clashed over Turkey's hosting of members of the Hamas militant group.

"If there were no issues at the top level [in Israel], our ties could have been very different," the Turkish president said on Friday. He added that the two countries continue to share intelligence with one another.

"We would have liked to bring our ties to a better point," Erdogan said.

Israel has established diplomatic relations with three Arab nations - the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco - this year, with a pact with Sudan promised but yet to be finalised.

President Erdogan has criticised the normalisation agreements, going as far as to threaten to suspend already strained ties with the UAE over the move.

Israel's foreign ministry did not immediately comment on the Turkish president's comments.

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