Turkiye boasts about anti-Israel measures despite continued trade ties

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Israel’s actions in Gaza threaten to ‘set the region ablaze’  

News Desk - The Cradle 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on 29 August that his government will maintain the ban on all economic and trade ties with Israel, and keep its airspace closed to Israeli aircraft. 

Fidan said halting trade is necessary due to Israel’s war on Gaza and its attacks on Syria’s “territorial integrity.”

“Atrocities committed in Gaza have been recorded as one of the darkest chapters in human history,” the foreign minister went on to say, adding that Palestinian resistance will change the “course of history, become a symbol for the oppressed.”

Fidan also said Israel’s actions in Gaza threaten to set “the entire region ablaze.”

Ankara’s public rhetoric has been harsh and critical of the genocidal war on Gaza, and has escalated since Israel launched a wide-scale occupation and campaign of strikes against Syria after the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government last year. 

Tel Aviv and Ankara have recently been engaged in talks for a “deconfliction mechanism” in Syria, aimed at preventing a clash between their armies, which both occupy the country. 

Fidan’s comments come days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Ankara was moving to impose a “full ban on maritime traffic connected to Israel, prohibiting both Israel-flagged or Israel-owned vessels from entering Turkish ports and Turkiye-flagged ships from sailing to Israel,” framing the move as a “new sanction” on Israel. 

Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported, citing Israeli assessments, that the decisions announced by Fidan are not new, and that he was simply “boasting” during a parliament session about previous measures taken. The newspaper added that the ban on flights pertains to military flights only.

In May last year, the Turkish government announced a sweeping ban on all trade with Israel. 

However, later reports continued to indicate that Ankara secretly maintained ties and bypassed its ban via third countries – namely, Greece. 

According to data from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), released in June 2024, Tel Aviv imported $116 million worth of goods from Turkiye in May of last year – a 69 percent decline from the same month in 2023.

The Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM) reported at the time only $4 million worth of goods exported to Israel in May – a drop of over 99 percent compared to the previous year.

Middle East Eye (MEE) cited sources as saying that the discrepancy in reported exports was due to Turkish goods being shipped first to Greece and other third-party countries before reaching Israel.

“The Israeli authorities don't even ask Turkish companies to amend their certificate of origin to re-export the goods through Greece because it would increase the costs further, so they are Turkish products. White label products with Hebrew tags were prioritized, but every sort of good is getting shipped to Israel, especially those ordered before the trade embargo,” a Turkish businessman told MEE at the time. 

In September 2024, statistical data from the Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM) revealed that Turkish businesses kept up exports to Israel via Palestinian Authority (PA) customs to get around the trade ban. 

Reports citing shipping data and satellite imagery also indicated that the flow of Turkish oil continued to Israel via Azerbaijan following the trade ban in 2024. Ankara has denied this.