Erdogan admits to barring Herzog’s flight to COP29 from using Turkish airspace
Turkey’s decision prevented president from attending UN climate conference in Azerbaijan, as other route would have meant crossing over Syria, Iraq and Iran
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed on Tuesday that Turkey had barred President Isaac Herzog from using the country’s airspace earlier this week, forcing the Israeli leader to cancel a planned visit to the United Nations COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Herzog’s office announced on Saturday that he would not be attending the high-level conference due to “security considerations.”
However, according to the Ynet news site, officials in Azerbaijan took exception to the suggestion that their country was not safe for Herzog to visit, and said the real reason for the cancelation was Turkey’s refusal.
During a press conference at the G20 Leaders Summit in Brazil on Tuesday, Erdogan confirmed that Herzog had indeed been prevented from flying over Turkey in the official Wing of Zion airplane, due to Turkey’s opposition to Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
“With regard to the Israeli president going to Azerbaijan for the COP summit, we did not allow him to use our airspace,” Turkish media cited Erdogan as saying in response to a question about Turkish pressure on Israel to end the fighting.
“There are other areas, there are other opportunities, we told him to travel from there… but I do not know whether he was able to go or not,” Erdogan added.
The incident marked the latest instance in which a country that has diplomatic ties with Israel blocked an Israeli leader from using its airspace for a state visit to express dissatisfaction, after Amman in 2021 refused to allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fly over Jordan, forcing him to cancel a trip to the United Arab Emirates.
Azerbaijan, an Israeli ally, is bordered by Iran to the south, and a direct flight to Baku from Israel would have to fly over the Mediterranean Sea and through Turkey and Georgia — which Erdogan prevented — or would have to travel over Syria, Iraq and Iran, which is not possible for an Israeli aircraft.
The rest of the Israeli delegation to the UN conference, which includes three ministers and dozens of officials, are attending as planned, having arrived in Azerbaijan on November 11, reportedly via commercial flights through Georgia.
The delegation is under tight security, given Azerbaijan’s proximity to Iran.
Erdogan has been a harsh critic of Israel throughout the war, which was sparked by the October 7, 2023 terror onslaught, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were seized as hostages. In May, he ended the two countries’ robust economic ties.
He has compared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler more than once over the last year, at one point saying that the prime minister’s “genocidal methods” would make Hitler “jealous.”
Israel and Turkey have had an on-again-off-again relationship for years, but extensive efforts by both Erdogan and Herzog in 2022 resulted in the two countries briefly enjoying warmer ties than they had in over a decade.
In March 2022, Herzog spent a whirlwind 24 hours in Ankara, in what was the highest-level visit by an Israeli official since former prime minister Ehud Olmert made the trip in 2008.
The success of the visit was made apparent in May of that same year, when Erdogan wrote to Herzog on the occasion of Israeli Independence Day, in which he wished for “The well-being and prosperity of the people of Israel.”
A year later, in May 2023, both Herzog and Netanyahu called Erdogan to congratulate him on his victory in elections considered free but unfair by international observers.
Ties soured and quickly deteriorated in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks orchestrated by Hamas, which maintains a strong presence in Turkey.
An attempted suicide bombing attack in Tel Aviv in August was said by the Shin Bet and Israel Police to have been planned and carried out under the supervision of Hamas’s headquarters in Turkey.
The latest show of support for Hamas from Ankara came on Sunday when it was reported that the terror group’s senior leadership had departed Qatar for Turkey.
Both Turkey and Hamas dismissed the reports as “rumors,” although the US said it would make it clear to Turkey’s governments that American allies cannot conduct business as usual with the Palestinian terror group.
