Israel and Turkey have signed a tourism agreement aimed primarily at increasing the number of Turkish tourists coming to Israel.
It is now far fewer than the 200,000 Israelis who vacation annually in Turkey.
The ceremonial signing ceremony here this week was attended by the Turkish minister of tourism, Abdel Kader Atesh, the first Cabinet member from Ankara to visit Israel in 28 years.
The other signatories were Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy and Tourism Minister Gideon Patt. The agreement provides for attractive tour packages for Turkish visitors.
Atesh observed that Israelis could drive from their homes to resorts in southern Turkey in four or five hours, once peace comes to the Middle East. The drive would be for the most part through Syrian territory.
Stressing his government’s efforts to ensure the security of Israeli visitors, the minister claimed, “It’s safer to visit Turkey than to visit the United States.”
Israeli officials said Atesh’s visit had significance beyond tourism. It followed by two months the upgrading of diplomatic relations between the two countries to the full ambassadorial level.
Israelis expressed hope that it presaged exchanges of visits between their respective prime ministers and presidents.
Turkey, a non-Arab Moslem country, has always maintained low-key relations with Israel, never before on the ambassadorial level. They deteriorated in the 1980s when Ankara reduced the level of diplomatic representation to third secretaries.
But the Turkish government, anxious to participate in the Middle East peace process, was willing to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel as a condition for doing so.
Turkey offered to host the multilateral working group on water resources. But the idea was scotched by Syria’s boycott of the entire multilateral series last month.
The water talks were held in Vienna, with Turkey participating. Israeli observers believe Turkey will expand its role in regional diplomacy.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
