ANKARA: Israel’s chairman met Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday, in the first visit by an Israeli head of state to Turkey since 2007, as the countries seek to mend fractured ties.
President Isaac Herzog’s trip to the Turkish capital and Istanbul was planned weeks before Russia raided Ukraine, but the conflict could feature at the addresses, with both Israel and Turkey playing agreement places in recent days.
But bilateral issues may dominate following further than a decade of politic rupture between the Jewish state and Turkey, which is a oral supporter of the Palestinian cause.
“ We’ll not agree on everything, and the relationship between Israel and Turkey has clearly known ups and campo and not- so-simple moments in recent times,” Herzog said before departing.
“ But we shall try to renew our relations and make them in a measured and conservative manner,” he added, before a boarding a aeroplane with “ peace and cooperation” written in Turkish on its side.
After landing Herzog and Erdogan progressed through an honour guard at the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk tomb, with Herzog writing an necrology that praised Turkey’s first chairman as a “ visionary leader” for choosing “ the path of collaboration.”
Relations between the two countries were firmed after the death of 10 civilians following an Israeli raid on the Turkish Mavi Marmara boat, part of a procession trying to transgress a leaguer by carrying aid into the Gaza Strip in 2010.
