Although no official statement has been issued, Turkish ports have already begun heeding an instruction prohibiting exports of goods to Haifa and Ashdod ports in Israel, sources familiar with the matter have told “Globes.” At the same time Israeli goods arriving at Turkish ports are not being allowed to unload their cargoes.
As “Globes” revealed on April 1, Turkey began unofficially restricting the export of goods to Israel. Agents working with Israeli importers told them, that the source of the delays was the government. Customs officials were also restricted in their ability to impose export duties for shipments from Turkey to Israel. The Turkish computerized system presented a message saying, “Error, unable to proceed with the declaration only for exports to Israel.”
A week later, Turkey’s Ministry of Commerce made an official announcement about an export ban to Israel of 54 items, most of them construction industry inputs. Prominent products included marble, cement, steel and aluminum.
In March, Turkish exports to Israel totaled $437 million, a record since the start of the war, while Turkey imported goods worth $167 million from Israel, according to Turkey’s Bureau of Statistics.
It seems that the historic defeat of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party in local elections at the end of March, led to panic and the decision to align with the anti-Israeli demands of its voter base.
About a week and a half ago, Erdogan held a joint press conference with his German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in which he claimed: “We no longer maintain close commercial ties with Israel, it’s over.” It is possible that Erdogan means what he is saying. Businesspeople in Turkey do not remember such a crisis even at the height of the Marmara Gaza flotilla crisis in 2010.
