Turkey has closed the skies to the Israeli president's plane

Turkey has refused to let Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog's plane through its airspace to fly to Azerbaijan. This was reported by Turkish newspaper Milliyet on November 17, citing diplomatic sources in both countries.

Herzog canceled his visit to Azerbaijan for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku due to Turkey's ban on his use of its airspace.

"Unfortunately, several days of intensive negotiations through diplomatic channels did not yield results. Azerbaijan has provided favorable conditions for the participation of all parties in the climate conference, but the situation around the Israeli president's visit arose for reasons beyond our country's control," the publication quoted a senior official in the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry as saying.

On November 13, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey has severed relations with Israel and has no plans to restore them in the future. He added that Ankara "unlike many countries does not turn a blind eye to what has happened" and has completely severed trade relations with Israel, noting that Turkey fully supports the Palestinian side.

The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian radical movement Hamas subjected the territory of Israel to a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. Israel began retaliatory strikes the same day.

The Palestinians are trying to ensure that future borders between the two countries follow the lines that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War, with possible land swaps.