President Recep Tayyip Erdogan finally gave in to internal pressure that demanded more gestures and fewer words in his vocal opposition to the Gaza war. Turkey suspended all trade activities with Israel, both export and import, until the Jewish State allows the uninterrupted entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, the Turkish Ministry of Commerce announced on Thursday.
On April 9, Turkey banned the export of a wide range of products to Israel, such as steel, concrete and other materials that formed the bulk of bilateral trade, as a pressure measure to accelerate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gazan population.
“The new measure will be applied decisively and decisively until the Government of Israel allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza,” the ministry stressed. He also recalled that the decision to restrict exports of products from 54 categories was taken as a measure of pressure when Israel did not respond to “international efforts in favor of a ceasefire, continuing the massacres and human drama” in Gaza.
The ministry clarified that it is in contact with the Palestinian government to prevent this restriction from affecting Palestinians “forced to live under occupation,” the statement added.
Hours before the Turkish decision was made official, the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, already announced it in a message on his X account, where he accuses the Turkish president, the Islamist Erdogan, of acting like a “dictator.” “Erdogan breaks agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports. “This is how a dictator acts, ignoring the interest of the Turkish people and traders and ignoring international trade agreements,” Katz wrote.
“I have given orders to the director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry to immediately coordinate with all relevant actors in the Government to create alternatives to trade with Turkey, focusing on local production and imports from other countries,” he added.
“Israel will emerge with a strong and courageous economy. We win, they lose,” concluded the head of Israeli diplomacy. Israel was Turkey’s tenth customer country in 2022, importing Turkish goods worth almost $7 billion, especially in the metals, steel, cement, automotive and electronics sectors.
Israel and Turkey broke diplomatic relations last October, withdrawing ambassadors, but trade had then continued uninterrupted and had even increased, according to the Turkish Exporters Association (TIM). According to data from this association, cited by the newspaper Birgün, the volume of Turkish exports to Israel rose from 317 million dollars last January to 423 million in March, with a total of 1.1 billion dollars in the entire first year. quarter.
