The Times of Israel reports: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday shook the hand of an Israeli diplomatic official for the first time since Jerusalem and Ankara agreed on a reconciliation deal in June.
The meeting was the first of its kind in two years.
Erdogan met and shook hands with Shani Cooper, the diplomatic attache to the Israeli mission in Ankara, during a reception with diplomats to mark Turkey’s Victory Day, a celebration of the nation’s independence.
In a sign of the warming relations between Israel and Turkey following the reconciliation deal, the photo was released to the press by the office of the Turkish Presidency.
Erdogan’s last meeting with an Israeli official took place at the same event two years earlier, when it was widely reported that he met with Yosef Levi Sfari, the charge d’affaires of Israel’s embassy in Ankara at the time. That meeting was the first in six years, and no photo was released on that occasion.
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