No friendship groups with Israel, Syria in new sessison of parliament

Turkey has decided to not form parliamentary friendship groups with five countries, including Israel and Syria, in the newly commenced parliamentary session, while preparing to form friendship groups with 18 new countries. During the previous session of Parliament, the 23rd session, there were friendship groups with parliamentarians from 110 countries, including Israel and Syria. Parliament has decided to re-establish friendship with 212 countries, which does not include Israel, Syria, Libya, Greece and Uzbekistan. The exclusion of Israel from the list was expected as Turkey's ties with the Jewish state have recently hit a low. The first-ever parliamentary friendship group with Israel was formed during the 20th session of Parliament, between January 1996 and April 1999. The last group was formed during the 23rd session of Parliament, which opened in August 2007 and closed in June 2011. Yet, following the winter of 2008-2009, when a three-week offensive by Israel in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip left about 1,400 Palestinians dead, most of whom were civilians, all members, including its chairperson, resigned from the group. Last month, Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador and other senior diplomats and suspended all military agreements with the Jewish state after Israel refused to apologize for a deadly raid in 2010 on an aid ship trying to break the blockade of Gaza, which resulted in the deaths of eight Turks and a Turkish-American. There will not be a Syria-Turkey friendship group in Parliament in the new session after Turkey, once a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, gradually toughened its criticism of the Syrian regime for its brutal crackdown on anti-regime protests. There will also be no Libya-Turkey friendship group as the country is going through a transition period after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime and has no parliament. Since Greece does not have a friendship group with Turkey in its parliament, Turkey will not form a friendship group with the neighboring country. Eighteen new countries with whom Turkey has recently been boosting relations will have friendship groups in Parliament in the new session. Among these countries are Bolivia, Denmark, Ecuador, Gambia, Luxembourg, Malta, Mozambique, Paraguay, Somalia, Turkmenistan and Zambia.