Israel and Turkey resume full diplomatic relations by appointing ambassadors

"We will continue to defend the rights of Palestine, Jerusalem and Gaza," said the Turkish Foreign Minister

Herzog praises the decision and assures that it will promote economic relations, tourism and friendship between Israel and Turkey.

Israel has announced the full restoration of diplomatic relations with Turkey by appointing two ambassadors after a rupture of more than ten years that was triggered by the death in 2010 of ten activists in the Israeli assault on the ship 'Mavi Marmara', which was part of the so-called Freedom Flotilla and was trying to circumvent the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip.

"The renewal of relations with Turkey is an important asset for regional stability and economically very important for the citizens of Israel. We will continue to act and strengthen Israel's international status in the world," said Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid. it's a statement.

In this sense, Lapid has reported that, after a conversation between the director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alon Ushpiz, and Turkey's deputy ambassador, Sadat Onal, it has been decided "to raise the level of relations to full diplomatic representation" .

Thus, the restoration of the ambassadors and consuls general of both countries will take place. "Improving relations will contribute to deepening the relationship between the two nations, increasing economic, trade and tourism ties, and will also contribute to strengthening regional stability," he added.

Relations between Israel and Turkey were interrupted in 2010, after the Israeli Navy killed several pro-Palestinian Turkish activists by causing a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

In June 2016, the two countries said they would normalize relations, a rapprochement fueled by potential gas deals and mutual fears about security risks in the Middle East.

However, despite the fact that both countries reached an agreement in 2016 to resume their relations, ties were not fully restored and their ambassadors were even expelled in 2018 due to the repression by the Israeli security forces against thousands of Palestinian protesters. in the Gaza Strip.

The rapprochement comes after last March, the presidents of Israel and Turkey, Isaac Herzog and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, respectively, ensured that the former's official visit to Ankara, the first in more than ten years to the country by a Israeli leader, was a "turning point" between nations.

"The restoration of diplomatic relations is a continuation of the positive trend in the development of relations in the past year, since the visit of the country's president, Isaac Herzog, to Ankara and the mutual visits of the foreign ministers to Jerusalem and Ankara", recalled this Wednesday Lapid.

Herzog has also praised, through a message on his official Twitter profile, "the renewal of full diplomatic relations with Turkey", which represents "an important advance" that "will promote greater economic relations, mutual tourism and friendship between peoples Israeli and Turkish.

For his part, the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said this Wednesday during a joint press conference with the Kyrgyz Foreign Minister, Ceenbek Kulubayev, that, like Israel, they have decided to appoint an ambassador to Israel.

With these new appointments that inaugurate a new stage in relations between the two countries, Turkey will be able to report directly on its concerns in the region at the level of ambassadors, as explained by Cavusoglu, as reported by the Turkish newspaper 'T24'.

"As we always say, we will continue to defend the rights of Palestine, Jerusalem and Gaza. It will also be important to convey our messages on this issue to Tel Aviv at the ambassadorial level," he stressed, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Cavusoglu was also in favor of a rapprochement with Israel in May, when he went to the country and assured that the "normalization" of bilateral relations would have "a positive impact" on the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We believe that the normalization of our ties will have a positive impact on the resolution of the conflict," he stressed during a joint press conference with Lapid, in an act in which he stressed that the two-state solution "is the only one for a lasting peace ".