Tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean escalated sharply as Turkey announced a full halt to trade with Israel, closing its airspace to Israeli aircraft and banning Turkish ships from docking in Israeli ports. The move was confirmed by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan during an emergency session of the Turkish parliament on the situation in Gaza.

The decision underscores Ankara’s hardening stance amid the conflict in Gaza, marking one of the most sweeping economic and transport bans imposed on Israel by a regional power.

At the same time, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made headlines after acknowledging the mass killings of Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide — a first for an Israeli leader.

Speaking on a podcast hosted by Armenian-American presenter Patrick Bet-David, Netanyahu said:

“I think we did. I think the Knesset passed a resolution to that effect,” — though no such resolution has actually been adopted. Pressed on why no Israeli prime minister had recognised the atrocities before, he added: “I just did. Here you go.”

Armenia has long sought wider international recognition of the 1915–1916 massacres, during which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians perished, alongside Greek and Assyrian victims. Turkey, however, vehemently rejects the genocide label, insisting the deaths occurred amid wartime turmoil.

The dual developments — Turkey’s sweeping embargo on Israel and Netanyahu’s unexpected genocide recognition — risk further straining already fraught Ankara–Jerusalem relations, while potentially reshaping regional diplomacy in the Middle East and Caucasus.