November 17 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the person in charge of forming a new government in Israel, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, held their first telephone conversation on Thursday since 2013, with which they seem to turn the page on the tension that there were for years between their respective countries.
This tension dates back to 2010, when Israeli forces raided the Turkish ship ‘Mavi Marmara’ in its attempt to intercept the so-called Freedom Flotilla, which was carrying aid to the Gaza Strip. In 2018, the break deepened with the withdrawal of ambassadors following an Israeli offensive on that enclave.
However, relations have been restored in recent months and the two parties have again appointed ambassadors. Last week, Erdogan congratulated Netanyahu on Likud’s victory in the parliamentary elections and called for further cooperation going forward.
The two leaders exchanged good words on Thursday, in a call in which Netanyahu expressed his condolences to Erdogan for the recent attack in Istanbul and the Turkish president regretted another attack against Israelis in the Ariel settlement in the West Bank.
“The two leaders have agreed to work together to launch a new era in relations,” reads a note released by Netanyahu’s office, which is immersed in full negotiations to try to consolidate a new government coalition, reports the newspaper ‘Haaretz’ .
Erdogan has stressed that there is a “common interest” to “maintain relations while respecting sensitivities on the basis of mutual interest,” his office said, according to the official Anatolia news agency.
