The first leg of Ben-Eliezer’s visit will be İstanbul, where he will participate in a meeting today on opportunities for economic cooperation and investment between the two countries, the Anatolia news agency reported on the weekend, noting that Ben-Eliezer will be accompanied by a business delegation as well as senior Israeli officials.
Relations between Israel and Turkey, regional allies who have traditionally cooperated, particularly in the military and defense arenas, have gradually deteriorated since the Gaza offensive which left more than 1,300 people dead. Tensions have increased since Turkey barred Israel from a NATO exercise a few weeks ago, a decision that angered Israel.
This evening Ben-Eliezer will visit Ankara, where he will have talks with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, while Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül -- co-chairman of the Joint Economic Commission between Israel and Turkey -- will host a dinner tonight in Ben-Eliezer’s honor, Anatolia said in its report posted from Tel Aviv.
A Joint Economic Commission meeting -- the last of which was held in Jerusalem in March 2007 -- will be held in Ankara on Tuesday, Anatolia said, adding that a memorandum of understanding was expected to be signed between the two countries at the end of the meeting. Ben-Eliezer is also scheduled to meet with President Abdullah Gül, the agency said.
Leading Israeli daily Haaretz said on Sunday that Ben-Eliezer is expected to propose that Turkey resume its role of mediator in peace talks between Israel and Syria in exchange for a return to more cordial relations between Israel and Turkey. Citing sources in Jerusalem, Haaretz said the policy had been coordinated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Foreign Ministry ahead of Ben-Eliezer’s departure on an official visit to Turkey on Sunday evening.
Yet, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was swift to deny the Haaretz report in remarks published by Ynetnews, an English-language Israeli news portal, later on Sunday.
Ben-Eliezer’s visit to Turkey “is important, but not coordinated with the Foreign Ministry,” Lieberman was quoted as saying by Ynetnews. “After all of the slander and nonsense on Turkey’s part, which said it would prefer a Sudanese murderer to the Israeli prime minister, it cannot mediate,” Lieberman said, adding that his party would object to any unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood.
Lieberman was apparently referring to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks delivered earlier this month in which he dismissed accusations of genocide against Sudan’s internationally indicted president, Omar al-Bashir, saying in controversial remarks that a Muslim cannot commit genocide and that “what happened in Gaza was worse than what happened in Darfur.”
Benzer Haberler 
Diplomacy
