Israeli President Isaac Herzog will travel to Turkey next week to meet his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a sign of thawing ties, his office confirmed Saturday.
Herzog will be the first Israeli head of state to visit Turkey for a state visit since 2003. He will be received by Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday before continuing to Istanbul, where he will meet members of the Jewish community.
“The two presidents will discuss various bilateral issues, including Israel-Turkey relations and the potential for expanding collaboration between their respective states and peoples in various fields,” Herzog’s office said.
Relations between majority-Muslim Turkey and Israel froze over after the deaths of 10 activists in an Israeli raid on a Turkish flotilla carrying aid for the Gaza Strip in 2010.
A 2015 reconciliation pact formally restored ties, but neither country returned an ambassador to post, with Erdogan frequently criticizing Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories.
In recent months, however, the two countries worked on a rapprochement.
In January, Erdogan called Herzog’s planned visit an opportunity to “open a new chapter in relations between Turkey and Israel.”
