Turkey Wants to Normalize with Israel After Palestinian Independence
Ankara, MINA – Turkey says it supports normalizing relations with Israel. However, Ankara stressed the Israeli occupation policy towards Palestine is the reason they had not been able to fully normalize relations with Israel.
Turkey actually already has diplomatic relations with Israel. However, diplomatic relations between the two countries are at their nadir, after Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador in Ankara in 2018, in response to Tel Aviv’s crackdown on protesters in Gaza, which killed 60 Palestinians.
Israel then responded by expelling the Turkish ambassador in Tel Aviv, which marked the freezing of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Turkey earlier this year appointed a new ambassador to be stationed in Tel Aviv, although relations between the two countries have not returned to normal.
“There are problems, if not for them, we would have had a completely different (relationship) with Israel,” said Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a statement.
“Palestine is our red line, we will not accept it. In fact, we wholeheartedly hope our relationship with Israel improves,” he continued, as reported by Sputnik on Sunday.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has long stalled, as both sides refuse to compromise on issues that matter to them. One of the main goals of the Palestinian side is to restore borders before the Six Day War in 1967, with the possibility of territorial swaps.
Palestinians hope to establish their state in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Israel, on the other hand, is against the idea of restoring its pre-1967 borders and is even more hostile to the idea of sharing Jerusalem, which it considers its historic and undivided capital.
Despite the success of normalizing relations with several Arab countries in recent months, the stalling of peace talks with the Palestinians undermines the prospect of Israel’s chances of normalizing relations with many Arab countries. (T/RE1)
Mi’raj News Ageny (MINA)
