Why Turkey is extending a hand of friendship towards Israel

Turkish Foreign Minister Mavlut Chavushoglu and Energy Minister Fatih Donmez are visiting Israel on Wednesday. Relations between the two countries have been strained for many years.

According to reports, this is the first visit by a Turkish minister to Israel in the last 15 years.

But Chavushoglu and Donmez are visiting the Palestinian territory before meeting with their Israeli counterparts.

In recent days, Turkey and Israel have been making efforts to improve mutual relations. Issac Herzog, the President of Israel, visited Turkey in March. The year 2010 is a milestone in the relations between the two countries.

This year an Israeli commando team killed ten Turkish activists trying to break the economic blockade of Gaza aboard the Turkish cruise ship Mavi Marmara.

The diplomatic rift between the two countries ended in 2016 when Israel announced compensation for the incident.

But tensions remained over the issue of Palestine and the status of Jerusalem.

Turkey is trying to improve its relations with many regional powers, not only Israel. It has recently tried to strengthen ties with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

no diplomatic relations between the two countries

At present, there is no diplomatic relations between the two countries at the level of ambassadors. In 2018, Turkey withdrew its ambassador after the deaths of Israeli armed forces firing on protesters in Palestine.

Chavushoglu has said that he will hold talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Yer Lapid for the reinstatement of ambassadors.

Differences over the territories of Palestine and the status of Jerusalem have come in the way of close ties between the two countries. Turkish officials have been saying that relations with Israel will not be normalized at the cost of Palestine.

Turkey also strongly condemned the recent clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and called the issue an obstacle to improving relations.

Turkey, however, has remained silent on the May 11 killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shirin Abu Akleh. Neither has any statement been issued by its foreign ministry, nor has President Erdoan publicly said anything on this.

What will happen to the Palestinian issue?

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also said that political and economic ties with Israel are "separate from the Jerusalem issue."

The Palestinian ambassador to Ankara, Fayed Mustafa, told Turkey's pro-government Sabah newspaper on 23 May that Ankara's normalizing relations with Israel do not mean ignoring Palestinian interests.

Sabah newspaper also wrote that Chavushoglu would also meet his Palestinian counterpart Riyadh al-Maliki during the visit and hold a meeting of the Turkey-Palestinian Inter-Governmental Council.

According to Israeli media reports, Chavushoglu wants to go to Al-Aqsa without Israeli officials or security.

In February, Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin and Deputy Foreign Minister Sadat Onal paid a two-day visit to the region. Kalin also posed for a picture in front of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Will both come closer because of gas?

The secularist opposition newspaper Jamhooriyat has reported that another possible issue during the visit could be energy cooperation.

There is little hope of any "concrete development" regarding the move of Israeli natural gas to Europe via Turkey, the report said, adding that the visit would be a "first step towards establishing mutual trust."

Turkish officials and media outlets recently raised the prospect of such energy cooperation projects after Russia's attack on Ukraine, as Europe is now exploring energy sources other than Russia.

During Herzong's visit in March, Erdoan said Turkey was ready to cooperate with Israel on energy and energy security projects.

Recently, he also said that both countries will accelerate the process of oil and natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean. At the same time, he also said that he is 'very optimistic' about it.

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