ANKARA (Dispatches) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made U-turn on his policies regarding the Zionist regime and has reached out to the occupying regime’s new president, congratulating him for ‘assuming office’.
Erdogan spoke to newly-sworn-in Zionist president Yitzak Hertzog over the phone on Monday, underlining the ‘importance’ of their bilateral relationship to stability in the Middle East.
The two also spoke about the potential for “high cooperation” in fields of energy, tourism and technology, Erdogan said after the call.
Hertzog acknowledged the call in a tweet later on Monday, saying they both “emphasized that Israeli-Turkish relations are of great importance for security and stability in the Middle East” and that they “agreed on the continuation of a dialogue in order to improve relations between our countries”.
The discussion came just days after Erdogan met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Istanbul. Following that meeting, the Turkish president said that peace and stability in the region would not be possible as long as the occupation continues.
During that meeting, Erdogan told Abbas that Turkey would “not remain silent to Israel’s oppression in Palestine,” according to the Turkish presidency.
Sources from within the Erdogan government in June told Middle East Eye that the current administration had been hopeful that a ‘new era’ between the Zionist regime and Turkey could begin after former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped down.
Erdogan had sought to make himself known as a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause during his 18-year rule.
Turkey first broke off ties with the Zionist regime in 2010. That was after 10 pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed by the occupying regime’s commandos who boarded a Turkish-owned ship, the Mavi Marmara, which was part of a flotilla trying to deliver aid and break the regime’s maritime blockade on Gaza.
The blockade of the Gaza Strip has been in place since June 2007, when the regime imposed a land, sea and air blockade on the coastal enclave.
They restored ties in 2016 but relations soured again in 2018. In May that year, Ankara withdrew its envoy over deadly attacks against Palestinians in Gaza who were protesting against then U.S. president Donald Trump’s decision to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Al-Quds.