As a matter of national pride, Israelis should stop traveling to Turkey for once and for all, says Tourism Minister Stas Mesezhnikov. If Turkey insists on calling Israeli policies a “strategic threat,” Israelis should respond by “boycotting Turkey totally as a tourism destination in order to preserve our national dignity.”
Mesezhnikov said he had nothing against Turkey or the Turkish people, but “as long as Turkey's leaders continue to speak against Israel, Israelis have no business there.
Last week, Turkey issued a revised “Red Book,” in which the country lists all of the regional and international threats to its security. Israel – specifically, Israeli policies vis a vis its Arabs and in Judea and Samaria – are now a “major threat” to Turkey. No longer a threat are countries like Iran and Syria, among others. The book, generally revised every five years, dictates Turkey's policies on military spending, diplomatic censure, and international treaty obligations.
Relations between Turkey and Israel have been deteriorating over the past year, with a major blow taken last May after IDF troops, attempting to prevent a lynching by Hamas supporters, killed eight Turkish citizens on the Mavi Marmara. But in the past several weeks, relations have reached an unprecedented low level.
Last week, for example, Turkey asked the U.S. to ensure that non-NATO countries – specifically Israel - be banned from accessing information on a missile defense system Washington plans to deploy in Turkey and Eastern Europe. The U.S. has reportedly agreed. Observers said that while there was technically nothing wrong with the request, Turkey is also demanding that the the missile system be used for “defensive” purposes only, excluding all regional countries, including Iran and Syria, from a “threat list” that the missile system could be used against – all regional countries, that is, except for Israel, which Turkey has now classified as a “strategic threat.”
Mesezhnikov said he had nothing against Turkey or the Turkish people, but “as long as Turkey's leaders continue to speak against Israel, Israelis have no business there. I hope that relations will eventually be restored to their former positive strategic level,” Mesezhnikov said, adding that Israelis were for the most part already avoiding Turkey.