Turkey’s Erdogan Threatens To Cool Israel Detente Over Backing For Kurdish State
Image by Getty Images (8)
(JTA) — President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey threatened to halt steps being taken toward normalization with Israel if it does not end its support for an independent Kurdish state.
“If Israel does not reconsider its support for Kurdish independence, Turkey will not be able to take many steps we would have with Israel, too,” Erdogan said Tuesday, the day after a nonbinding referendum by Iraqi Kurdistan on whether to seek independence. His remarks were reported by the Turkish Daily Sabah.
Netanyahu was the only leader in the region to endorse the referendum.
Turkey and Israel are working on repairing ties that were broken after an Israeli raid on a flotilla trying to break the naval blockade of Gaza in 2010 left nine Turkish activists dead. The countries began re-establishing diplomatic ties last year following an apology by Israel and the payment of $20 million in compensation to the victims’ families.
On Monday, 78 percent of 5.2 million eligible voters turned out for the referendum. The results are expected back Thursday, and an overwhelming “yes” vote is predicted.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
