Israeli and Turkish delegations met in Azerbaijan Wednesday for Syria deconfliction talks, the Prime Minister’s Office said Thursday. The talks were aimed at preventing unwanted incidents as both countries’ militaries operate in the country.
“Under the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a political-security delegation led by National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, and with the participation of senior representatives of the Defense Ministry and the security branches, met last night with a parallel Turkish delegation,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
The PMO thanked Azerbaijan and its President Ilham Aliyev for “hosting the important talks,” and added that during the meeting, “each side presented its interests in the region, and agreed to continue the path of dialogue in order to maintain security stability.”
Israel “made it unequivocally clear that any change in the deployment of foreign forces in Syria, in particular the establishment of Turkish bases in the Palmyra (Tadmor) area, is a red line,” an Israeli official told media on condition of anonymity.
The official added that Israel made it clear that preventing any such activity “is the responsibility of the government in Damascus. Any activity that endangers Israel will threaten the rule of [Syrian President Ahmed] al-Sharaa.”
Turkish ministry sources also confirmed the talks in Azerbaijan, saying they mark the beginning of efforts to set up a channel to avoid potential clashes or misunderstandings between the two countries.
“Efforts will continue to establish this mechanism,” one of the sources said, without providing further details on the scope or timeline of the talks.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) shakes hands with Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa during a joint press conference following their meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)
Israel has accused Turkey of trying to turn Syria into a Turkish protectorate, and Ankara has slammed Israeli military activity in the country following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Reuters reported last week that Turkish military teams reviewed at least three air bases in Syria where they might deploy forces as part of a planned joint defense pact, before Israel hit the sites with airstrikes, rendering them unusable.
An Israeli source told Channel 12 news Wednesday that “a mechanism will be established, similar to the one built between Israel and Russia.” The two countries established a hotline to avoid clashes between their air forces, as Israel worked to prevent Iran from gaining a military foothold in the country and Russia provided military support for the Bashar regime in ending the country’s civil war.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told CNN Turk Wednesday that Turkey and Israel had been holding talks on the matter “when needed.”
“While we are conducting certain operations in Syria, there needs to be a deconfliction mechanism with Israel, which flies aircraft in that region, similar to mechanisms we have with the US and Russia,” Fidan said.
Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, answers questions from media members during a press conference in Istanbul, January 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
“There are technical contacts to prevent combat elements from misunderstanding each other,” Fidan continued, adding that technical teams are communicating “when needed.”
Fidan told Reuters last Friday, “We don’t want to see any confrontation with Israel in Syria because Syria belongs to Syrians.” He argued that repeated Israeli strikes were eroding the new government’s ability to deter threats from enemies, including the Islamic State terror group.
A senior Israeli official told the Ynet news site that during a Wednesday night security cabinet meeting, Netanyahu told ministers that Israel was not seeking a confrontation with Turkey in Syria but would not hesitate to act if necessary to defend itself.
The prime minister added that he would request assistance from US President Donald Trump if needed, given Trump’s amiable relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Debris lies on the ground at the scene of an Israeli strike in a military facility in Syria’s southern Hama governorate, on April 3, 2025. (Abdulaziz Ketaz/AFP)
Airbase strikes
On Saturday, Reuters reported that Turkey scoped out at least three airbases in Syria where it could deploy forces as part of a planned joint defense pact that could see new Turkish bases in central Syria and the use of Syria’s airspace, before Israel hit the sites. Turkish military teams were said to have, in recent weeks, visited the T-4 and Palmyra airbases in Syria’s Homs province and the main airport in Hama province.
The Israeli strikes on the three sites Turkey was assessing, including a heavy barrage Wednesday night last week, came despite Ankara’s efforts to reassure Washington that a deeper military presence in Syria was not intended to threaten Israel, the report said, citing four people familiar with the matter.
Following the fall of the Assad regime, Israel has carried out a campaign to destroy Syrian military capabilities so that they cannot threaten Israel. It fears that if Turkey establishes a military presence in Syria, it could hamper the Israeli Air Force’s freedom of action in the region.
Turkey is a key backer of the Islamist-led coalition that toppled Assad late last year after almost 14 years of civil war. Israel is wary of the Islamist presence on its border and has lobbied the United States to curb Turkey’s growing influence in the country.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, right, and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, September 25, 2023. (Turkish Presidency via AP)
International mediation
Both Azerbaijan and the US have offered to mediate between the two countries.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has referenced his country’s past role in facilitating Israeli-Turkish ties and said this week that “both countries are close friends of Azerbaijan.”
“I think, despite the legitimate concerns and the quite high level of mistrust, there can still be found grounds for normalization and areas of mutual interest,” he said at the annual ADA University Policy Forum in Baku.
Trump on Monday touted himself as a mediator between Israel and Turkey. The US president, speaking alongside Netanyahu during the premier’s White House visit, said negotiations could be helped by the president’s “great relations” with Erdogan, whom he said he likes very much and called “very smart.”
Netanyahu voiced Israeli concerns over Turkish influence in Syria while touting the US president as a mediator.
“We’ve had neighborly relations with Turkey that have deteriorated, and we don’t want to see Syria being used by anyone, including Turkey, as a base for attack in Israel,” he said.
“We discussed how we can avoid this conflict in a variety of ways, and I think we can’t have a better interlocutor than the president of the United States for this purpose,” Netanyahu added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, speaks alongside US President Donald Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 7, 2025. (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images via AFP)
Erdogan, Hamas supporter
Erdogan is an avowed supporter of Hamas and one of the leading critics of Israel on the world stage, and his country has frequently praised the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack that started the ongoing war, when thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Less than a month after the October 7 attack, Erdogan, whose government had only recently restored full diplomatic ties with Israel, massively stepped up his criticism of the Jewish state. In late October 2023, he asserted that Hamas was not a terrorist organization but a liberation group of “mujahideen” fighting for its lands and people, and said in an address to a mass pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul that his country was making preparations to proclaim Israel a “war criminal” for its actions in Gaza.
Israel announced it would pull its diplomats out of Turkey in response to Erdogan’s inflammatory statements.
Turkey also hosts several Hamas officials and has repeatedly invited the group’s leaders the the country for meetings.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa during their meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, February 4, 2025. (Turkish Presidency via AP)
Israel was a long-time regional ally of Turkey before Erdogan came to power, but ties imploded after a 2010 Israeli commando raid on the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara ship, part of a blockade-busting flotilla, that left dead 10 Turkish activists who attacked IDF soldiers aboard the ship.
Netanyahu and Erdogan repeatedly aimed brickbats at each other in the ensuing years. Erdogan has repeatedly compared Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler and Israel to Nazi Germany.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
