Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan briefed a number of Jewish community leaders in the United States on Monday of his intention to visit Israel.
On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Erdogan met with the heads of major American Jewish organizations and announced his desire to visit Israel, without specifying a date for this trip.
newspaper said “Times of IsraelErdogan’s comments to Jewish leaders are another indication that the Turkish president is determined to restore long-troubled relations with Israel.
Erdogan also told the leaders of American Jewish organizations that anti-Semitism is a “crime against humanity,” as one of the participants in the meeting at the Jewish Telegraph Agency said.
Relations between Israel and Turkey have undergone a recent transformation following Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog’s visit to Turkey last March, the first visit by an Israeli president to Ankara since 2007.
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced that his government would resume full diplomatic relations with Turkey after years of tension between the two countries.
Also in New York, Lapid will meet Erdogan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the first time an Israeli prime minister has met the Turkish president since 2008.
That year, bilateral relations between the two countries began to deteriorate following an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip.
Relations between the two countries froze after the 2010 crisis, when ten Turkish civilians were killed in an Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara ship, which was about to breach the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip.
A reconciliation agreement was signed in 2016, which saw the return of ambassadors, but it nearly collapsed in 2018-2019 after more than two hundred Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were killed by Israeli forces during border protests.
According to the Israeli newspaper, Erdogan is seeking closer ties with the West as Russia continues its war against Ukraine.
It also wants to ensure Turkey’s participation in energy exploration operations in the Eastern Mediterranean, which have so far been led by Israel and Greece.
On the other hand, Israel tries to build on the 2020 Ibrahim agreements, which led to the normalization of relations between Israel and four Arab countries.
Israel hopes to add more Arab and Muslim countries to the agreements.
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