Turkey has taken strong actions against Israel for “committing genocide in Gaza for the past two years, ignoring basic humanitarian values right before the world’s eyes”. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced on August 29, 2025 that his country completely severed economic and trade ties with Israel, apart from closing its airspace to Israeli aircraft in protest over the war in Gaza. At the same time, the Eurasian nation decided to resume direct road transport to neighbouring Syria after a 13-year pause.

Speaking at a special session of the Parliament, Fidan said: “We have completely cut off our trade with Israel. We do not allow Turkish ships to go to Israeli ports. We do not allow their planes to enter our airspace.” The minister confirmed that Israeli vessels would not be allowed to dock in Turkey, while Turkish-flagged ships would not enter Israeli ports. It may be noted that Ankara had snapped direct trade ties with the Jewish Nation in May 2024, demanding a permanent ceasefire and the immediate entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza. In 2023, trade between the two countries had amounted to USD 7 billion.

Resul Serdar Atas, the Senior International Correspondent at Al Jazeera, has claimed that the Turkish foreign minister’s condemnation came amid years of increasingly tense relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv, stating: “It’s not only about the humanitarian crisis that’s unfolding in Gaza; Turkey is gradually perceiving Israel as a national security threat.” He is of the opinion that Israel’s expansionism and attacks across the wider West Asia have been a cause for concern.

Meanwhile, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, the Transport Minister of Turkey, announced the resumption of direct road transport between his country and Syria, stating: “After a 13-year hiatus, direct international road transport between Turkey and Syria has resumed. On August 28, four trucks passed through the Cilvegozu Border Gate, travelling from Mersin to Aleppo, and three trucks from Idlib to Mersin.“

Turkey snapped diplomatic ties with neighbouring Syria during the reign of former President Bashar al-Assad. The Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Islamist political organisation and paramilitary group involved in the Syrian civil war, and its affiliate Jaysh al-Izza (The Army of Glory) overthrew al-Assad’s regime through a large-scale offensive against the regime forces in just 12 days (from November 27 to December 8, 2024). Turkey reportedly helped the Syrian rebels to trigger the coup. The US lifted sanctions on Syria after the change of power in Damascus mainly because of the diplomatic efforts made by the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Administration. However, Israel has occupied a large area in Syria (adjacent to the Golan Heights) in the past eight months.

Earlier, Turkey slammed Israel for wilfully undermining the recovery efforts of Syria after the devastation of a 14-year-long civil war and the removal of al-Assad in December 2024 by the lightning rebel offensive. Commenting on the issue, Serdar said: “Diplomats in Ankara are seeing that if Israel is not stopped, eventually there might be a direct military confrontation between these two countries.” He further said that the Turkish foreign minister’s comments showed that Ankara was looking to the Global South and other powers to take action against Tel Aviv, amid the US and European Union’s largely unwavering support for Israel.

According to political analysts, the Israeli aggression has prompted Turkey to bolster ties with Syria. Uraloglu claimed that Ankara resumed cargo transportation to Syria after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Damascus on road transportation at the Global Transport Corridors Forum held in Istanbul on June 27-29, 2025. Speaking at a press conference on August 30, 2025, he stressed: “Comparing August 2024 to August 2025, there was a 50% increase in our transportation to Syria. This trend will continue to increase. With the reopening of the Syria route, transportation from (Turkish) cities, like Hatay, Gaziantep and Mersin to Jordan and Saudi Arabia will become faster. This step will invigorate not only our exporters, but also the regional economy.“

Meanwhile, Akiva Eldar, an Israeli political analyst, has stated that Turkey’s latest moves make “more and more Israelis feel the disadvantages of this kind of war that has no deadline”.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das