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Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday, marking the first such call between the countries’ Foreign Ministers in 13 years. An official statement from Jerusalem stated that Çavuşoğlu called to wish Lapid well after he tested positive for Covid-19.
Israel’s Foreign Minister has since recovered and left isolation. The call comes days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mentioned in a press conference that he may meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, and said that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is “sending messages at different levels” to the previous Israeli administration, in a sign of warming ties.
Erdogan also said that he would be willing to work with Israel on a natural gas pipeline to Europe via Turkey, after the US told Greece, Israel and Cyprus that it does not support their joint plan to construct the EastMed pipeline.
Israel has emphasised that improvements in Jerusalem-Ankara relations will not come at the expense of Israel’s alliance with Greece and Cyprus. Erdogan and Herzog have spoken on the phone three times since the latter entered office last year.
The two countries have had ties since 1949, when Turkey became the first Muslim majority country to recognise the State of Israel. In May 2010, the two once close regional allies fell out after a deadly confrontation between Israeli commandos and Turkish activists on a passenger vessel seeking to breach Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
In June 2016, a reconciliation deal saw the restoration of full ambassador-level relations after they were dramatically downgraded.
