Dec. 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Israeli ambassador to Turkey, Irit Lillian, has presented her credentials to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, within the framework of the rapprochement process between the two countries in recent months and nearly three weeks after the ambassador did the same. Turk in Israel, Sakir Ozkan Torunlar.
Lillian has indicated on her account on the social network Twitter that it has been “a very exciting time” and has expressed her hope that there will be “many more positive developments in bilateral relations in the near future”. Israel did not have an ambassador in the country since 2018.
Israel and Turkey announced in August the restoration of their diplomatic relations and the return of the ambassadors to their posts, after a series of rapprochements and mutual visits to resolve their bilateral disputes.
Ties between the two nations were interrupted in 2010 after the death 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 against the Gaza Strip.
After this incident, in June 2016, the two countries assured that they would normalize their relations, although the ties were not fully restored and they even expelled their ambassadors in 2018 due to the repression by the Israeli security forces against thousands of Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip.
