Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the severing of diplomatic relations with Israel, but Jerusalem said no official notification had been received from Türkiye. Despite this, the Israeli authorities found a way to deal a significant “blow” to the Turkish diplomats.
As mynet reports, the Jerusalem mayor’s office has decided to return to the public five parking spaces that were previously reserved exclusively for employees of the Turkish consulate. These spaces, located on Al Zahra Street, in the eastern part of the city, were enabled seven years ago by decision of the mayor’s office. Now the authorities have decided to cancel this benefit and make the plots available to everyone.
It is clarified that the Turkish embassy is located in Tel Aviv on HaYarkon Street and the consulate is located in Jerusalem. The right to use parking spaces in one of the most sought-after areas of the capital was granted to the consulate during the term of former mayor Nir Barkat. However, due to the deterioration of relations between Turkey and Israel, the city administration decided to reconsider granting such benefits and canceled parking permits for Turkish diplomats.
The Jerusalem mayor’s office explained that the places were assigned about seven years ago, in 2017. Until recently there were no complaints, but after another inspection the permit was revoked.
Deputy Mayor Aryeh King expressed satisfaction with the change in the mayor’s policy toward “hostile elements,” noting that Jerusalem authorities had made concessions before. He is glad that the situation with parking spaces for Turkish diplomats, provided illegally during the former mayor’s government, has now been corrected.
Earlier, Kursor reported that Erdogan said his country had completely severed ties with Israel and had no intention of restoring them.
