Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will pay a visit to Turkey on Thursday as the two countries enter a new phase in bilateral relations after a decade of animosity.
Within the scope of Turkey's normalization policy with the countries of the Gulf and Middle East, Lapid will arrive in the capital Ankara just days after urging Israelis to leave Turkey over threats of attacks by Iranian operatives.
The trip follows Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu's visit to Israel last month which marked the first visit at the foreign minister level in 15 years.
The mutual appointment of ambassadors and energy cooperation will be the main agenda items in the contacts to be held within the framework of Lapid's visit. The political situation in Israel, bilateral relations and regional issues will also be discussed.
Ankara has also made clear that the normalization steps with Tel Aviv are not "despite the Jerusalem case" and that the Palestinian side is not disturbed by the situation.
In the energy cooperation between Turkey and Israel, which has important potential, the gas pipeline to transport Israeli gas from Turkey to Europe stands out. In the Çavuşoğlu-Lapid meeting, it is anticipated that the issue of possible energy cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean, which is at the center of the relations between the two countries, will be on the table.
It is expected that the progress achieved regarding the decision to revive the joint economic committee between Turkey and Israel and to start working on an agreement in the field of civil aviation will be brought to the agenda.
It has been reported that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Lapid agreed to dissolve the assembly and hold early elections. According to the agreement of the coalition partners, it is stated that Lapid will be the interim prime minister until the early elections. The political situation in the country is also expected to be among the topics to be discussed.
Ankara wants the problems between Palestine and Israel to be resolved as soon as possible and believes that the solution for lasting peace between Palestine and Israel is to establish two states within the parameters of the United Nations.
Both the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Sunday announced that Lapid will visit Turkey on Thursday to meet with his counterpart.
The announcement came after Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke by telephone with his Turkish counterpart President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and "thanked" him "for the efforts to thwart terrorist activities on Turkish soil," according to a statement from the Israeli presidency.
During the call, the two leaders "agreed on maintaining cooperation for peace and stability as well as dialogue in the two countries’ relations and regional matters, including security and the fight against terror," according to a statement by the Turkish Communications Directorate.
Last month, during a visit to Israel, Çavuşoğlu said Turkey and Israel demonstrated a "common will" to improve relations in every field. "Even though there were difficult days, we decided to continue our relations," Çavuşoğlu said.
His visit was the first trip to Israel by a Turkish foreign minister in nearly 15 years. Earlier, in March, Herzog had visited Ankara and met with Erdoğan.
The stark warning came amid the latest surge in tensions between bitter rivals Iran and Israel, with Tehran blaming the Jewish state for a series of attacks on its nuclear and military infrastructure, inside Iran but also inside Syria.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry dismissed Israel’s calls urging its citizens to leave the country over fears of Iranian attacks, saying that Turkey is a safe country.
Turkey is a popular tourist destination for Israelis. The two countries have been mending their ties after more than a decade of strained relations.
Israel was a long-time regional ally of Turkey before a 2010 commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla left 10 Turkish activists dead. In 1996 Israel and Turkey signed a "strategic partnership," under which their air forces can train in each other’s air space. Relations took a downturn when Erdoğan, who was the prime minister at that time, walked out of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2009, in protest at Israel’s massive offensive in Gaza against Palestinians. The 22-day operation cost the lives of 1,440 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
A full-blown crisis erupted in May 2010, when Israeli commandos staged a botched predawn raid on the Mavi Marmara ship, part of a flotilla trying to ferry aid to the Gaza Strip in defiance of a naval blockade. Ankara recalled its ambassador and scaled-down economic and defense ties with Israel.
In March 2013, under pressure from U.S. President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey and announced compensation for the families of those killed.
Israel and Turkey formalized the normalization process in June 2016 after six years of estrangement.
In December 2017, Erdoğan led Muslim opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to transfer the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and to recognize the disputed city as Israel’s capital. On the day the new embassy was opened in Jerusalem, on May 14, 2018, Erdoğan accused Israel of "state terrorism" and "genocide" after dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli rockets.
Both countries recalled their ambassadors. Relations continued to sour, particularly after a controversial law passed by the Israeli parliament in July that defined the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
In November 2021, Erdoğan held telephone talks with Israeli President Herzog and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the first such discussions between the Turkish leader and an Israeli leader since 2013. Erdoğan declared that Turkey was considering "gradual" reconciliation with Israel.
In January 2022, he announced that Turkey was ready to cooperate with Israel on a gas pipeline project in the Eastern Mediterranean. Following the 2010 crisis, Israel created a strategic alliance with Greece and the Greek Cypriot adminstration, two actors with long-standing acrimony toward Turkey, and in recent years held regular trilateral meetings and conducted joint military drills. The trio was part of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum established in 2019 with other states, including Egypt and Jordan – without Turkey.
In 2020, Israel, Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration signed the EastMed deal for a pipeline to ship gas from the Eastern Mediterranean to Europe, triggering objections from Ankara. The United States has since also raised concern about the project, citing possible issues over its "commercial viability."
Turkey has recently been working to improve relations with several countries in the region as part of a normalization process launched in 2020. Ankara, which supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has condemned Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its policy toward Palestinians, while Israel has called on Turkey to drop support for the Palestinian resistance group Hamas which runs Gaza. Turkey also said it would not abandon its commitment to Palestine in order to broker closer ties with Israel.