Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Wednesday that Turkey has cut all ties with Israel. He made the statement to journalists on his plane after visiting Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.
“The government of the Republic of Turkey, under the leadership of Tayyip Erdogan, will not continue or develop relations with Israel,” Erdogan said.
“[Our ruling coalition] is resolute in its decision to cut ties with Israel, and we will maintain this stance in the future as well.”, he added.
Despite imposing a trade embargo on Israel in May, Ankara has continued to maintain diplomatic relations with the country.
The Turkish government recalled its ambassador for consultations last year but, Turkish diplomatic missions in Tel Aviv remain open and operational.
Similarly, Israel withdrew its embassy staff from Ankara last year, citing security threats in the region.
Erdogan also stressed that Turkey would take all necessary measures to hold Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accountable for his actions in Gaza, which international human rights organizations have condemned as genocide.
Earlier this year, Turkey intervened in a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in support of Palestine and called for an arms embargo on Tel Aviv.
Erdogan said that 52 countries and two international organizations had backed Turkey’s arms embargo initiative, launched at the United Nations in early November, to prevent the shipment of weapons and ammunition to Israel.
“We recently submitted our formal letter regarding this initiative to the president of the United Nations Security Council and the secretary-general of the United Nations,” Erdogan said.
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