Herzog to meet with Turkey’s Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday

President Issac Herzog will visit Turkey on Wednesday, where he will meet with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his office confirmed on Saturday.

This will be the first visit to Turkey by an Israeli leader since 2008.

According to the statement, Herzog is set to visit the capital of Ankara, where he will be received by Erdogan in an official welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Complex.

The two leaders are set to discuss various bilateral issues, including Israel-Turkey relations and the potential for expanding collaboration between their respective states and peoples in various fields, the statement said.

He will also visit Istanbul, where he is set to meet with members of the local Jewish community.

The president will be accompanied on the trip by his wife Michal.

Ties between the two former allies have appeared to thaw in recent months, as Erdogan made a number of statements about possible cooperation with Israel.

Israel officials are expected to keep a close watch on events during the visit to ensure that Turkey, which staunchly backs the Palestinians, doesn’t catch Herzog off-guard and embarrass him in some way.

Last month, Erdogan said that Herzog’s upcoming visit to Ankara will be beneficial for both nations.

Turkey is currently being battered by an economic crisis, while Israel and a group of regional countries, including Turkey’s rival Greece, have been working on a joint pipeline to bring eastern Mediterranean gas to Europe, in a deal signed in January 2020.

Turkey has strongly opposed the project and staked its own territorial claims to the region’s energy wealth.

After the Biden administration dropped its support for the controversial gas pipeline last month, Erdogan indicated that he wanted Turkey to be involved in the import of Israeli gas to Europe, saying there had been “some progress” on the matter in the past, and suggesting a new project that would involve Ankara.

Once robust regional allies, Israel and Turkey saw their ties fray during Erdogan’s tenure, during which the Turkish leader has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.

Israel has been upset by Erdogan’s warm relations with Hamas, the terror group that controls the Gaza Strip.

The countries reciprocally withdrew their ambassadors in 2010 after Israeli forces boarded a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian aid for the Palestinians that attempted to break an Israeli blockade. Though most of the participating vessels were boarded without incident, those aboard a Turkish ferry boat violently resisted the Israeli action, resulting in the deaths of nine Turkish activists.

Relations slowly improved but broke down again in 2018, after Turkey, angered by the United States moving its embassy to Jerusalem, once more recalled its envoy from Israel, prompting Israel to reciprocate.