Turkey to review trade links with Israel after June election

Turkey to review trade links with Israel after June election
Turkey will review its trade links with Israel after June elections in the wake of a spate of massacres of Palestinian protesters in Gaza, Turkey's President Erdogan has pledged.

2 min read
22 May, 2018
Erdogan has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of Israel [Getty]

Turkey will review its trade links with Israel after upcoming elections in the wake of Israeli massacres of Palestinian protesters, Turkey's president has pledged.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the remarks on Sunday, calling on other Islamic countries to boycott Israeli products, Hurriyet Daily  reported.

"As Turkey, we will put on the table our relations [with Israel], especially economic, trade relations. There is an election forthcoming, we will take our steps in this direction after the election," Erdogan said.

He added that he hoped countries in the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation [OIC] would implement a suggested embargo on Israeli goods.

Turkey maintains full trade and diplomatic links with Israel after a 2016 reconciliation deal ended a dispute over the deadly storming of a Turkish ship by Israeli commandos.

Erdogan has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of Israel after the Israeli massacre of at least 62 Palestinian protesters last Monday.

He has exchanged barbs with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, calling Israel an "apartheid state" and ordering the country's ambassador to Turkey to leave.

Muslim nations on Friday condemned Israel and the inauguration of the US embassy in contested Jerusalem as a "provocation and hostility against" the Islamic world.

A final communique from the OIC summit in Istanbul "reaffirmed the centrality of the Palestinian cause" after Erdogan called an extraordinary summit.

Turkey will hold elections on 24 June, more than a year earlier than scheduled.