[ad_1]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flirted with Israel when he said on Friday that Turkey would like to have better relations with Israel, adding that dialogue continued between the two sides at the intelligence level.
Both Israel and Turkey have witnessed tensions in bilateral relations in recent years, culminating in the expulsion of ambassadors in 2018.
Erdogan told reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul that Turkey had problems with “some high-ranking people” in Israel, adding that relations with Israel could differ if there were no such problems.
“If we did not have these problems with senior officials, our relationship would have been different … We would like to take our relations to a better point,” Erdogan added, according to Turkish official TRT TV.
Previous reports mentioned that Azerbaijan is working to improve the relationship between Israel and Turkey, after the two countries provided military support to Baku in its war in the “Nagorno Karabakh” region against Armenia.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev called Erdogan this week and suggested various ways to improve diplomatic relations between Turkey and Israel.
According to the Israeli website “Walla”, Erdogan has reacted positively to the initiative, while Azerbaijani officials have informed their Israeli counterparts.
Last week, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Gihon Bayramov called Israel’s Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi to discuss the record of relations between Israel and Turkey, indicating that his country would be interested in both allies enjoying better relationships.
It is noteworthy that Turkish presidential adviser Masoud Kasin issued a statement a few days ago on Israel, in which he said: “If Israel takes one step, then perhaps Turkey will take two steps.”
“If we see the green light, Turkey will open the embassy again and we will return our ambassador. We can restore full diplomatic relations again. Why not? Establishing peace and security is very important to Israel and Turkey,” Cassin added in remarks to the news site “Voice of America”.
It is noteworthy that the Turkish president hinted last August that his country was considering closing its embassy in Abu Dhabi and suspending diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates due to the peace agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
Despite Ankara’s objection to the peace process between the two countries, Turkey is one of the first Islamic countries to recognize Israel in 1949.
