MEE Staff
Middle East Eye / July 20, 2023
While the meetings will be three days apart, Erdogan will discuss current regional and global issues with the Palestinian and Israeli leaders.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will be hosted in Turkey during the same week, the Turkish presidency announced on Thursday.
Turkey will host Abbas on 25 July and Netanyahu on 28 July.
“The leaders who will come to our country upon the invitation of President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan will exchange views on current regional and global issues,” the office said in a statement.
During the official meetings between Erdogan and Abbas, Turkey-Palestine relations will be discussed, as well as the latest developments in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Other regional and international issues will also be talked about, the statement said.
“The steps that can be taken to further develop the cooperation between Turkey and the friendly and brotherly Palestinian State will also be among the agenda items of the meeting.”
In the meeting between Erdogan and Netanyahu, the bilateral relations of Turkey and Israel will be “reviewed in all their dimensions”, as well as the steps needed to be taken to improve cooperation.
“During the meetings, it is also envisaged to exchange views on current regional and international issues, as well as bilateral relations.”
In May 2022, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s former minister of foreign affairs, reiterated his country’s support for the independence and sovereignty of Palestinians at the start of his rare two-day visit to the occupied West Bank and Israel.
Speaking after meeting his Palestinian counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Cavusoglu said that Turkey’s “support for the Palestinian cause is completely independent from the course of our relations with Israel”.
In August 2022, Israel and Turkey restored full diplomatic relations by trading ambassadors. In 2018, Turkey downgraded relations with Israel after Israeli forces killed 60 Palestinians during the Great March of Return.
The decision to restore relations came after then-Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s visit to Ankara and his meetings with Cavusoglu, and his conversation with Erdogan.
In November 2022, during bilateral talks, Turkey refused to comply with Israeli demands requesting the deportation of Hamas leaders living in the country.
Cavusoglu said Ankara does not view Hamas, the Palestinian resistance movement that rules the Gaza Strip, as a terror group and refused to expel them.
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Abbas, Netanyahu to visit Turkey just days apart
Al-Jazeera / July 21, 2023
Leaders to separately discuss ‘Turkey-Palestine relations’ and ‘latest developments in Israeli-Palestinian conflict’ with Erdogan.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Turkey later this month to hold talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Netanyahu will be received on July 28, a few days after Abbas, who is expected to visit on July 25, the Turkish presidency said.
“President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will welcome the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Turkey in the course of the same week,” the presidency said in a statement.
The leaders will discuss “Turkey-Palestine relations and the latest developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as other topical international issues”, it added.
Netanyahu’s visit will be the first by an Israeli prime minister since Ehud Olmert in 2008.
Relations between Turkey and Israel have improved over the past year, with several high-level visits, including that of Israeli President Isaac Herzog after more than a decade of tensions.
In 2010, relations were strained after the deadly storming of a Turkish ship by Israeli commandos that saw relations downgraded for more than half a decade.
Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel in May 2018, and expelled Israel’s ambassador to Turkey after about 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza during a rally against Israel’s illegal blockade of the coastal enclave.
Erdogan accused Israel of “state terror” and “genocide” over the killings, calling it an apartheid state.
Israel retaliated by dismissing the Turkish consul general in Jerusalem.
The upcoming visits, organized by Turkey, come amid heightened tensions with some of the worst violence, including the first Israeli drone assault in the area since 2006, increasing military raids on Jenin and northern occupied Palestinian territories and Jewish settler attacks in Palestinian villages.
Earlier this month, Israel targeted the Jenin refugee camp, killing 12 Palestinians, including three children.
At least 3,000 people fled their homes while dozens of houses were shelled, and widespread destruction was caused to roads and other infrastructure.
SOURCE: AL-JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
