Turkey-Israel: the battle of cargo transporters

By Peter Lukimson, exclusively to VK

Israeli Transport Minister Israel Kats allowed the CAL air-company to deliver cargo to Turkey by plane. According to him, this will allow the Israeli company to compete with Turkish cargo transporters who were, up until now, monopolists in this area.

Minister counsellor Zinaida Roitman told VK that there is no need for Turkey’s official permission in this case as an agreement on cargo air-transportation between Tel-Aviv and Istanbul was signed between the two states back in 1950. Israel didn’t take advantage of this agreement up until now, and the Turkish "Turkishairlines" and MNG airlines were the only ones to transport cargo.

It is quite obvious that such a unilateral step, even though stipulated by the existing treaty, won’t make Ankara happy, if we take the general state of the two countries’ relationship into account. This step might even lead to a new round of conflict escalation.