(Communicated by the President's Spokesperson)
President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin (Wednesday, 23 March 2016) spoke by telephone with the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to thank him for his letter of condolence following the
terror attack in Istanbul in which three Israeli citizens were killed, and many others injured.
President Rivlin began by saying, "President Erdogan, I want to thank you for your letter following the deaths of the Israeli citizens in the attack in Istanbul."
President Erdogan responded by saying, "I would like to share with you the deep sadness that I felt at the killing of three Israeli citizens who were in Istanbul on a tour visiting the city. After the incident I immediately instructed the related agencies to do all that was necessary to help, and immediately the Governor of Istanbul, the Minister of Interior, the Foreign Ministry and the Health Ministry officials were mobilized to help in the recovery. I also felt that our own Jewish community, which is an integral part of our society, also provided any necessary help. I also spoke with the Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva and also the head of the Jewish community İshak İbrahimzadeh."
President Rivlin thanked President Erdogan and said, "I also want to express my condolences to you and to all the people of Turkey. I want to thank you for all the care you have taken for all our citizens, and for your help in bringing the victims back to Israel with dignity. Mr. President, terror is terror, life is life, and blood is blood, whether it is in Istanbul, Brussels, Paris or Jerusalem. We must all stand together in the fight against this terrible evil."
President Erdogan said, "I believe that against this terrorism we have to stand together with the international community and take a very very firm stance, and increase our cooperation against all terrorist acts. In this regard we are ready to cooperate with Israel against terrorism."
President Erdogan concluded, "The terrorist attack yesterday in Brussels is what we feared from the very beginning. There cannot be good terrorists or bad terrorists, they are all evil, we have to fight against evil and I want to thank you again for your call. We all pray that things like this will not happen again."