The ambassadors and general consuls will return to the two countries. This announcement puts an end to twelve years of diplomatic blurring between the two countries.
Le Monde with AFP
Turkey claims not to abandon the Palestinian cause. Israel announced, Wednesday, August 17, the total recovery of diplomatic relations with Ankara and the return of ambassadors in both countries on Wednesday. “It was decided to raise the level of links between the two countries to full and whole diplomatic relations and to return the ambassadors and the general consuls to the two countries,” said Israeli Prime Minister Yaïr Lapid, in a Communiqué.
The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu, assured in the process that Turkey “would not abandon the Palestinian cause” and will continue to “defend the rights of Palestinians, Jerusalem and Gaza”.
Twelve years of diplomatic cold
Bilateral relations between Israel and Ankara were set in 2010 with the Mavi-Marmara affair, when Israeli forces had launched a deadly assault on this Turkish ship trying to transport help to the band of Gaza, Palestinian enclave under Israeli blockade. Following this event, Ankara had taken a series of measures: expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, suspension of bilateral military agreements, procedure before the International Court of Justice to challenge the blockade of Gaza.
The two countries then recalled their ambassadors in 2018 after the death of Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a fervent defender of the Palestinian cause, has often criticized Israeli policies towards the Palestinians.
Despite tensions, Israeli and Turkish have maintained discussion channels, sometimes secret, to lay the foundations for normalizing their relationships. The two countries had also opened a new era in recent months in their relations, marked in particular by the historic visit of the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, in Ankara in March. The head of Turkish diplomacy, Mevlüt Cavusoglu, had made a visit to Jerusalem in late May as part of this diplomatic thaw.