Turkey and Israel, former foes inching toward normalization for one and a half years, have taken new steps toward reconciliation as they initialed an aviation accord and announced the reopening of the Israeli commercial office in Istanbul. 

The presidents of the two countries, Isaac Herzog of Israel and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, also talked on the phone today, Turkey’s Communication Directorate announced. The two leaders discussed bilateral and regional issues and expressed the will to further bilateral relations through “concrete steps.” Herzog also extended his good wishes to Erdogan for Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha that starts on July 9.

The civil aviation authorities of the two countries initialed a new aviation agreement today to update the bilateral accord that dates to 1951, paving the way for the resumption of Israeli flights to Turkey after a break of more than a decade. El Al stopped its flights to Turkey in 2007, citing security concerns. An attempt to restore flights was made in 2013 when the two countries experienced a short-lived reconciliation period after the 2010 Mavi Marmara raid but yielded no results. In 2020, Israel’s national carrier El Al resumed cargo flights from Israel to Turkey, but passenger flights have remained canceled.

“The initialing is a vital stage toward fully signing the aviation agreement, which is expected to allow Israeli airlines to resume flying to Tűrkiye,” a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said, using Turkiye instead of Turkey after the country rebranded the name.