ISTANBUL (Dispatches) –
Hundreds of protesters on Wednesday burnt the Israeli flag in the Turkish city of Istanbul ahead of a visit by the occupying regime’s president Isaac Herzog.
They gathered in Taksim Square, where they also shouted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”
The protesters denounced any normalization with the regime in Tel Aviv and vowed to support the Palestinian cause.
Herzog met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday afternoon, shortly after landing in Ankara for a landmark 24-hour visit.
Prior to his meeting with Erdogan, Herzog visited the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of modern Turkey, and laid a wreath.
Herzog’s visit to Ankara and Istanbul, on Wednesday and Thursday, was in the making for weeks as the two sides sought a rapprochement.
Herzog’s trip marks the highest-level visit by a Zionist official since former prime minister Ehud Olmert made the trip in 2008.
Bilateral ties hit their nadir in 2010 following an Israeli naval raid on a Turkish aid ship that was en route to the blockaded Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid. The raid resulted in the death of 10 activists.
In 2013, Turkish-Israeli relations entered a period of normalization after the then-Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an apology to Turkey, and Tel Aviv paid $20 million in compensation to the humanitarian mission victims. Turkey and the occupying regime of Israel reappointed ambassadors as part of the reconciliation deal in December 2016.
Relations broke down again in 2018, after Turkey, allegedly angered by the United States moving its embassy to the occupied Al-Quds, once more recalled its ambassador from Occupied Palestine, prompting the Tel Aviv regime to also recall its envoy.
Erdogan has called Netanyahu a “terrorist,” an “occupier,” and a “tyrant.” But the Turkish president announced last month that the Israeli president would visit Turkey in March, saying it would be good for Turkey-Israel relations. He also said a possible gas partnership would be on the agenda of Herzog’s visit.
Before his departure for Turkey, Herzog said relations between the occupying regime of Israel and Turkey were important but added that, “We will not agree on everything.”
Turkey and Israel once were close allies, but the relationship frayed under Erdogan. The Zionist regime has been angered by Erdogan’s embrace of Hamas.
The steps toward a rapprochement with the occupying regime of Israel come as Turkey, beset by economic troubles, has been trying to end its international isolation by normalizing ties with several countries in the Mideast region, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.