MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Turkey was ‘totally suspending’ defense ties with Israel, after downgrading diplomatic relations with the country.

While it was initially reported that Erdogan had also suspended all trade ties between the two nations, this was later clarified to refer to defense-related trade only.

‘Trade ties, military ties, defense industry ties – we are completely suspending them. This process will be followed by different measures,’ Erdogan told reporters in Ankara.

But an official at Erdogan’s office later told Reuters the prime minister was referring to military and defense trade ties only, not overall trade, which last year reached a total bilateral volume of $3.5 billion.

Erdogan also said that Turkey would implement further sanctions against Israel and said that ‘our ships will be seen more frequently in [the Eastern Mediterranean].’

Some Turkish and Israeli commentators have suggested Turkey might use the feud with Israel to build up naval patrols in seas between the Israel and the divided island of Cyprus.

Turkey has bitterly complained about recent Cypriot-Israeli energy deals and the presence of Turkish ships would have a menacing effect.” Read more.