Turkey has denied the Israeli president access to Turkish airspace

Turkey effectively prevented the Israeli president from attending the COP29 summit in Baku earlier this week by denying his plane permission to enter Turkish airspace, according to several reports citing Azerbaijani and Turkish officials.

On Saturday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s office announced that he is canceling his planned visit to the climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The president’s office cited “security concerns” as the reason, without elaborating.

But Ynet on Sunday quoted officials in Azerbaijan as saying the trip was canceled because Turkey refused to allow the president’s plane to enter its airspace.

An unnamed Azerbaijani official reportedly said that Israel and Turkey were involved in “intensive negotiations through diplomatic channels that lasted several days but yielded no results.”

The rest of the Israeli delegation to the conference arrived in Baku on November 11, after traveling there on commercial flights through Georgia.

Al-Monitor reported that Turkish officials confirmed that the government rejected an official Israeli request to allow Herzog’s plane to fly through Turkish airspace.

Deteriorating relationships

This comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Wednesday that Turkey has severed all ties with Israel.

“The government of the Republic of Turkey, led by Tayyip Erdogan, will not continue or develop relations with Israel,” Erdogan said.

“(Our ruling coalition) is firm in its decision to sever ties with Israel, and we will maintain this position in the future.”

“We, as the Republic of Turkey and its government, have currently severed all relations with Israel.”

Turkish-Israeli relations have deteriorated significantly since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza, which left more than 43,000 Palestinians dead.

Earlier this year, Turkey intervened in a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in support of Palestine and advocated an arms embargo on Tel Aviv.

Now it appears that relations have reached their lowest point yet.