ISTANBUL—Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that his country was suspending defense trade with Israel completely and that Turkish naval vessels would be seen in the Eastern Mediterranean more often, as Ankara ratcheted up pressure in a rising dispute with its former ally.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara after giving a speech at the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Erdogan repeated plans announced Friday to downgrade diplomatic relations with the Jewish state and suspend military agreements, specifying that the suspension would include trade in defense goods.
ReutersTurkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
„Trade relations, military relations, defense industry—these we will suspend. These will be completely frozen and that process will be followed also by very different sanctions,” Mr. Erdogan said. Those measures still to come would be a „Plan C” to the „Plan B” already announced, he said.
So far, Turkey has announced no general trade sanctions against Israel. A spokesman for Mr. Erdogan said the prime minister had been referring in his remarks only to trade in defense goods, and not to trade in general. On Monday, Turkey’s economy minister had said there would be no broader trade sanctions „for now.”
Turkey and Israel did just under $3.5 billion worth of trade in 2010, according to official Turkish figures, and trade was up by a quarter in the first six months of this year.
Responding to a question asking whether reports that Turkey would begin patrolling waters off Israel and whether that risked conflict, Mr. Erdogan said that Turkey had a right to do so. „The eastern Mediterranean is not a foreign place to us … Of course our vessels will be seen from now on very often in these waters. We will see [them] very often,” he said.
He also confirmed that he would be traveling to Egypt soon, and that he „might” also visit Gaza, if that could be arranged.
Turkey has said it is acting over Israel’s continued refusal to apologize for the killing by Israeli commandoes of eight Turish citizens and one American of Turkish extraction on board the Mavi Marmara aid ship as it sought to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza strip last May.
The Wall Street Journal
