Israel Katz accused Erdoğan of acting like a "dictator" after Bloomberg cited two senior Turkish officials stating Ankara had dramatically tightened up restrictions first introduced in last month, stopping all imports and exports as of Thursday.
The government of the Republic of Turkey has reportedly stopped all trade with Israel over its actions in Gaza, prompting strong criticism of its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, from the Israeli foreign minister.
Israel Katz accused Erdoğan of acting like a "dictator" after Bloomberg cited two senior Turkish officials stating Ankara had dramatically tightened up restrictions first introduced in last month, stopping all imports and exports as of Thursday.
Turkey has not formally declared the suspension, and it is unclear what conditions are required for commerce to resume.
Turkey’s trade ministry first announced restrictions on exports to Israel in early April, stopping the export of iron and steel products and construction equipment. The two countries had a trade volume of $6.8bn in 2023.
Katz said Erdoğan was “breaking agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports”.
He said: “This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements.”
Katz added that Israel would try to replace any lost products via local production and imports from other countries.
Last month Katz criticised Erdoğan for his decision to publicise his latest meeting in Istanbul with the head of Hamas’s politburo, Ismail Haniyeh.