Israel is considering closing its consulate in Istanbul, one of its first in the world, which was targeted in a shooting in April, an Israeli source told AFP on Wednesday.
Israel’s embassy in Ankara will remain open, but still shorn of diplomatic personnel after their evacuation in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israeli soil by Palestinian militant group Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza.
Diplomats were likewise pulled from the Istanbul consulate, located in a business district of Turkey’s largest city, with both institutions staffed with Turkish personnel since.
“The issue is under discussion; no decision has been made,” insisted the source, referring to plans to demolish the building housing the Istanbul consulate as part of earthquake preparation measures.
“Some argue these vacant premises, that belong to us, are costing us a lot of money,” the source said.
It comes after a shooting took place on April 7 near the building.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, while authorities blamed a “terrorist organisation which exploits religion”, without giving further details.
Turkey is now represented in Israel by a charge d’affaires after its last ambassador was recalled in the aftermath of October 7.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has regularly spoken out against Israel’s response and against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he has compared to Hitler and labelled a perpetrator of “genocide”.
Turkey’s Jewish community comprises some 15,000 people, down from 55,000 in the 1950s.
In 1949, the country became the first Muslim state to recognise Israel.
The two countries re-established diplomatic links in 2016 after a six-year hiatus from May 2010, when Israeli forces raided a “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” in international waters and killed nine activists, eight of them Turkish citizens, after storming the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara vessel.
The Israeli navy last Monday intercepted a new flotilla to deliver aid for Gaza — the third since October 7, 2023 — after setting sail from southern Turkey last week.
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