' fill='%230E4F97'%3E%3Cg id='Group-5' transform='translate(370.000000, 11.000000)'%3E%3Cg id='avatar' transform='translate(6.000000, 4.000000)'%3E%3Ccircle id='Oval' cx='8' cy='4' r='4'%3E%3C/circle%3E%3Cpath d='M7.12864205,10 L8.87135795,10 C11.558649,10 14.0087196,11.5384024 15.1762205,13.958831 L16,15.6666667 L16,15.6666667 L15.3374858,17.5134983 C15.228016,17.8186575 14.9774027,18.051811 14.6651459,18.1389975 L8,20 L8,20 L1.33485405,18.1389975 C1.02259733,18.051811 0.771984007,17.8186575 0.662514216,17.5134983 L0,15.6666667 L0,15.6666667 L0.823779545,13.958831 C1.99128041,11.5384024 4.44135104,10 7.12864205,10 Z' id='Rectangle'%3E%3C/path%3E%3C/g%3E%3C/g%3E%3C/g%3E%3C/g%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Gantz to meet Turkey leader Erdogan during landmark Ankara trip Thursday
Jerusalem says meeting at presidential residence comes in addition to talks with Turkish counterpart in bid to renew defense ties, in highest-level summit in Turkey in years
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz will meet with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential residence in Ankara, his office said Thursday.
Gantz landed in the Turkish capital Wednesday evening for the first official trip to Turkey by an Israeli defense chief in over a decade, a sign of re-blossoming ties between the countries.
According to a schedule published by his office, Gantz is slated to meet with Erdogan at the Presidential Complex at 3:30 p.m.
Gantz will also meet his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, his office said.
“As part of the meetings, Defense Minister Gantz will renew the official defense relations between the countries,” his office said in a statement.
The meetings mark another step in a year-long process that has seen the countries inch back toward full diplomatic relations after over a decade of frayed ties.
The trip comes two months after Dror Shalom, who heads the Defense Ministry’s Political-Military Bureau, met Turkish defense officials to “renew the lines of security relations between the countries” after a decade, the ministry said.
During Shalom’s meetings in Turkey, the issues that would be discussed between Gantz and Akar were agreed upon, the ministry added.
On Wednesday, ahead of Gantz’s flight, a defense official told the Walla news site that the trip would likely not see any weapons deals being signed between the sides.
“A race of procurement should not be expected here… we are very, very careful to continue this [process] with measured and careful steps. We made it clear and it will be made clear as part of the minister’s visit,” the official said, noting the sensitive ties Israel has with Turkish rivals Cyprus and Greece.
Defense ties were once a mainstay of Israel’s relations with Turkey, but unraveled as diplomatic ties soured.
Renewed defense ties between Jerusalem and Ankara were said to have been made possible after Turkish authorities managed to foil a series of attacks by Iranian cells that were planning to assassinate or kidnap Israeli tourists in Istanbul in late July.
Last month, for the first time in a decade, a Turkish warship anchored at an Israeli port.
Also last month, Prime Minister Yair Lapid met with Erdogan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly’s annual high-level meeting. It was the first such meeting between an Israeli premier and the Turkish leader since Ehud Olmert met Erdogan in Turkey in 2008.
That discussion came just over a month after the two leaders held a phone call and agreed to move forward with the full restoration of ties and to return ambassadors to each other’s capitals, ending years of antagonism that largely surrounded Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians.
Jerusalem has also long pressed Ankara to crack down on Hamas’s activity in Turkey, arguing that the Gaza-based terror group uses the foreign office to orchestrate terror attacks against Israelis.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
