by Burak Akinci
ANKARA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Israeli President Isaac Herzog's potential visit to Turkey this month would pave the way to restore ties between Turkey and Israel and help revive a pipeline project to ship Mediterranean gas to Europe, experts said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he expects his Israeli counterpart to travel to Turkey in February during an interview with local private broadcaster NTV on Jan. 26.
"This official visit could open a new chapter in relations between Turkey and Israel," Erdogan said, adding that he was "ready to take steps in Israel's direction in all areas, including natural gas."
Such a visit would be a breakthrough in the frozen relationship between the two countries, analysts stressed.
"Realpolitik dictates that both Turkey and Israel need to have normal relations and get along with each other," Hasim Turker, academic coordinator of the Ankara-based Bosphorus Center for Asian Studies, told Xinhua.
"It seems that there is a convergence of opinions in both countries to this regard, which is beneficial for the energy security of the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe," he said.
"The Israeli President visiting Ankara would of course be extremely significant. Israeli and Turkish leaders have not had such high-level contact in more than a decade," Batu Coskun, an independent researcher on Israeli affairs, stressed for his part.
He noted that ambassadorial appointments on both sides are expected right before the visit to show that relations have been "restored" in a diplomatic sense.
Coskun insisted that both parties have to make concessions on thorny issues in order to mend ties.
"The big question is whether both sides would agree to overcome drastically divergent views and whether Turkey and Israel would establish mechanisms to sustain the relationship in moments of crisis," he said.
Ties between the two regional powers have frozen after the death of 10 people in an Israeli raid on a Turkish flotilla carrying aid for the Gaza Strip in 2010.
In a more recent spat in 2018 when the United States moved its embassy to Jerusalem, Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador from Ankara.
However, the two countries have been working on a rapprochement in recent months, with Erdogan, a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, holding telephone talks with Herzog and other Israeli leaders.
The Turkish leader said last week that he was prepared to work with Israel on reviving a project to deliver Mediterranean gas to European clients via Turkey.
His remarks came after the U.S. dropped support for a rival pipeline project, the EastMed pipeline, involving Israel, Cyprus, and Turkey's neighbor and rival Greece.
Ankara has strongly opposed the project, which was supported by former U.S. President Donald Trump.
"Israel would always want to keep a working relationship with Turkey, the first Muslim majority country that recognized the Jewish state soon after its foundation," said Tulin Daloglu, a journalist and expert on Turkey-Israel relations.
She stressed that both parties need to think hard about the future of their relationship, and indicated that "if the visit materializes, we'll have to see what the Israeli president's messages will be and how Erdogan will welcome him."
Turkey's more assertive foreign policy in recent years has witnessed its deteriorating ties with a number of countries including Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Greece, and some Gulf states.
In 2020, Ankara introduced a foreign policy shift towards mending its ties with the Gulf States, Egypt, and Israel to end its regional isolation, which is seen as detrimental to its energy ambitions.
"Turkey's steps towards breaking its isolation in the region would also benefit its former rivals, including Egypt. This could be a win-win opportunity for Turkey, Israel, and Egypt," Turker argued.
One major hurdle to the Turkish-Israeli rapprochement, according to the observers, will be the Turkish government's ties with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). Israel claims the militant group directs attacks from headquarters in Istanbul.
According to the reports of Turkish and Israeli media, Turkey has moved recently to limit Hamas activity on its soil, deporting several of its members. ■
