Turkey will not attend this year's tourism conference of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is to be held in Jerusalem later this month. Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay spoke to reporters on Tuesday and confirmed that Ankara would not be sending representatives to Israel for the conference despite prior plans to the contrary. “Regrettable statements have been made. We want tourism to take place, not politics,” Günay was quoted as saying. The newspaper ‘Hürriyet’ described the move as Turkey's first official boycott of Israel in the wake of the IDF raid on the Gaza flotilla at the end of May, in which nine Turkish activists were killed.
The statements Günay likely referred to were remarks by Israel’s Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, who had said in an interview with ‘Haaretz’ earlier this week that although some countries had canceled their participation in the conference, the fact that most would send delegations was a show of support for Israel's territorial claims in Jerusalem.
Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the OECD, sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week warning that due to Misezhnikov's comments, the decision to hold a tourism conference in Jerusalem could be hindered. Gurría protested the fact that Misezhnikov had linked the conference to political issues and said that the incident could hinder the planning of future conferences in Israel.
The British government has also said it won't be attending the conference, but let it be known that the reason for this the unavailability of the relevant delegates and not political considerations. Israel joined the OECD in May of this year. Spain will also not attend the meeting.
