Israeli occupation’s president: We shall try to restart our relations with Turkey

Israeli occupation’s president Issac Herzog landed in Ankara, on Wednesday, to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the first visit by an Israeli president since 2008.

Ahead of his trip, Herzog told reporters that "We will not agree on everything, and the relationship between Israel and Turkey has certainly known ups and downs and not-so-simple moments in recent years."

"But we shall try to restart our relations and build them in a measured and cautious manner, and with mutual respect between our states," he added.

The two-day trip's main agenda item will most likely be gas sales to Europe, a topic that has taken on added importance in light of the escalating global energy crisis.

In early December 2020, Al-Monitor published a report that exposed a secret channel of talks between "Israel" and Turkey with the aim of improving relations between them.

It is noteworthy that after a six-year dispute, due to the Israeli attack on the Turkish Freedom Fleet in May 2010, the two sides resumed normal relations in June 2016.

However, Erdogan's decision to secure the release of an Israeli couple arrested on espionage charges in Istanbul in November proved a "turning moment," according to Gallia Lindenstrauss of “Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies”.

Following the 2010 crisis, “Israel” formed a strategic alliance with Greece and Cyprus, two countries with long-standing animosity toward Erdogan's Turkey, holding regular trilateral meetings and joint military drills in recent years.

Over the past weeks, Herzog toured Turkey's neighbors, Greece and Cyprus, in a bid to reassure the two that rapprochement with Turkey would not undermine "Tel Aviv's" ties with Athens and Nicosia.

Herzog, who will meet with Erdogan before a state dinner on Thursday, will also meet with members of the Jewish community in Istanbul before returning to “Israel”.