Israeli President Isaac Herzog was blocked by Turkey from attending the COP29 climate change conference in Baku, Azerbaijan this week; Turkey refused to allow Herzog’s plane to fly through its airspace to the event, according to a report by Ynet, quoting Azeri officials and a report by Azerbaijan’s Caliber News.
Herzog’s office announced Saturday that the president had canceled his attendance at the event due to “security considerations” following a situational assessment.
However, “contrary to claims by some foreign media, the issue is not related to security,” the Azeri news outlet reported, quoting a senior official in the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The reason for President Herzog’s absence from Azerbaijan lies in an entirely different realm. As we have learned, Türkiye imposed a ban on the use of its airspace for the Israeli president’s aircraft,” according to the news outlet, considered a government mouthpiece.
“Unfortunately, several days of intensive negotiations through diplomatic channels yielded no results. Azerbaijan upholds an inclusive approach to hosting COP29 and ensures conditions for the participation of all parties. However, the circumstances surrounding the Israeli president’s visit arose due to factors beyond Azerbaijan’s control.”
Herzog was expected to travel on Israel’s official “Wing of Zion” government aircraft.
The president was expected to spend just a few hours in Baku to attend the conference on Tuesday, and then to return to Israel the same day.
Last week, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters following visits to Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan that his country had severed all ties with the Jewish State, a former ally.
“The government of the Republic of Turkey, under the leadership of Tayyip Erdogan, will not continue or develop relations with Israel,” Erdogan declared.
“[Our ruling coalition] is resolute in its decision to cut ties with Israel, and we will maintain this stance in the future as well. We, as the Republic of Turkey and its government, have currently severed all relations with Israel.”
Turkey is also an ally of the United States, as well as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Although Israel is not a NATO member, the Jewish State has enjoyed strong ties with the organization since the late 1980s and was the first Mediterranean nation to sign on to NATO’s Individual Cooperation Program (ICP), an agreement later succeeded by the Individual Partnership Cooperation Program (IPCP).
Under the agreement, Israel is connected electronically to the NATO system, and Israeli security services cooperate with NATO in various fields such as counterterrorism, increasing the number of joint NATO-Israel military exercises, improving cooperation in the areas of armament and logistics, and more.
Ironically, NATO offered ICP membership to Israel and other Mediterranean nations during the 2004 Istanbul Summit, in Turkey.
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