Tuesday, December 6, 2016

After five frosty years, an Israeli ambassador returns to Turkey

Eitan Na’eh is Israel’s first ambassador in Ankara in half a decade. Before he was greeted by Erdoğan in the Presidential Palace for a short ceremony, a military band played Israel’s national anthem, Hatikva.

Na’eh, who had been stationed in Ankara in the 1990s, arrived in Turkey on Thursday.

“I am very happy to be back in Turkey as ambassador. We have a lot of work to do,” he told reporters at the airport. “I want to thank Turkey for the support, the aid it sent Israel fighting fires last week. We have a history of helping each other.”

Turkey was among the several states that sent planes and other equipment to help Israel extinguish over 1,000 wildfires across the country.

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Turkey's relations with Egypt have been even more frosty since Egypt removed the Muslim Brotherhood from power and this year Egypt told Israel it did not want any Turkish involvement in Gaza with which it also has a border. The state of relations currently is unclear.

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