Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced the termination on Friday of all trade with Israel, in addition to a ban on Turkish ships entering Israeli ports and the use of Turkish airspace by Israeli aircraft.
“We have completely cut off our trade with Israel. We do not allow Turkish ships to go to Israeli ports. We also do not allow their planes to enter our airspace,” the Haber broadcaster quoted Fidan as saying Friday in a speech in parliament.
The announcement represents a new low point in bilateral relations that have soured gradually since Erdoğan rose to power in 2002 following his Islamist AK Party’s victory in the general elections. The relationship worsened following Hamas’s invasion into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, after which Turkish officials and Erdoğan repeatedly have accused the Jewish State of perpetrating a genocide in Gaza.
On Thursday, Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev wrote on X that Israel had canceled the purchase of two tugboats from Turkey in favor of a deal with Bulgarian suppliers as a reaction to “a series of antisemitic decisions by Turkey.”
Regev wrote: “We will continue to operate at sea also without the tyrant Erdoğan. Whoever boycotts Israel, Israel will boycott them back.”
The decision to cancel the purchase from Turkey follows “infringement on Israel’s maritime space, a ban on docking Israeli or Israel-affiliated vessels,” Regev said, adding these were “antisemitic” moves.
Regev’s ministry and the Israel Port Authority have decided to “cancel the contract with Turkey for the sale of two tugboats and to sign a new contract with a ship builder in Bulgaria for purchasing two tugboats for NIS 100 million ($30 million.) The vessels are “some of the most powerful and advanced” worldwide and would join the Port of Haifa’s operational fleet, Regev added.
“They will allow us to respond to the growth in shipping traffic and the arrival of some of the world’s largest giant ships to Israel,” Regev said. She vowed to “continue to work to strengthen maritime continuity and ensure the future of ports and the independence of Israeli transportation by sea, air and land.”
For years before Oct. 7, 2023, Erdoğan had instigated numerous diplomatic crises with Israel—most infamously, by facilitating the 2010 flotilla attempting to breach Israel’s blockade of Hamas-run Gaza. He later participated in reconciliations with Jerusalem, often brokered by the United States.
Still, trade and tourism continued well into the late 2010s.
The ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza has served as the backdrop for an unprecedented deterioration in bilateral relations between Turkey and Israel. Ambassadorial relations have been severed, bilateral trade has been significantly reduced, and most direct flights between Israel and Turkey have been halted.
‘In the footsteps of Saddam Hussein’
In parallel, Erdoğan has issued a series of belligerent statements against Israel, drawing harsh responses from Israeli officials.
In July, he threatened to invade Israel, prompting a warning from then-Foreign Minister Eli Cohen not to “follow in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein.”
Erdoğan called Israel a “terror state,” accused it of committing genocide and urged Muslim nations to unite against it.
Under Erdoğan, who faces mounting domestic opposition from liberal forces, Turkish officials labeled Israel the “main regional threat” to Turkey and the broader Middle East.
Following the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria in December, Turkey and Israel have advanced their competing strategic goals there. The two militaries—considered the most powerful in the Middle East—nearly clashed in April, according to reports.
Warplanes from both countries came into contact last month, according to those reports, prompting de-escalation talks mediated by Azerbaijan, according to Israel Hayom.
Turkey is widely believed to be backing the forces of Syria’s current ruler, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim who formerly was an Al-Qaeda terrorist. His Sunni alliance had fought the Alawite-led forces of Bashar Assad with Turkish assistance; in December, Assad fled his country and is reportedly being harbored in Russia.
