Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced he hopes to maintain the country’s recently renewed diplomatic relations with Israel.
The statement, made in response to Israeli left-wing losses in this week’s national elections, came in an interview with Turkish broadcaster ATV.
“Whatever the election result, we want to maintain relations with Israel on a sustainable basis, based on mutual respect for sensitivities and common interests,” Erdogan said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog established a warm relationship with Erdogan earlier this year during his official visit to Ankara, the first such trip by an Israeli leader since 2008.
Although diplomatic ties were restored in 2016, Turkey once again recalled its diplomats from Israel and expelled the envoys of the Jewish State two years later, following Gaza border clashes with IDF soldiers that killed a number of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists.
As of Thursday morning, it appeared that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to return to power with a solidly right-wing coalition government comprised mostly of religious Jewish parties.
Netanyahu served as prime minister from 2009 to J2021, and from 1996 to 1999, making him the longest-serving prime minister in the history of the State of Israel. He is also the first prime minister to have been born in Israel after the 1948 Declaration of Independence.
