Istanbul, Türkiye – The rising death toll in Gaza has caused Turkish politicians, particularly President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to become increasingly blunt in their criticism of Israel.
Erdogan recently said he had completely severed ties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the Israeli assaults, without lowering the level of communication between the governments.
“Netanyahu is no longer someone we can talk to. We erased it and threw it away,” the president told reporters after returning from a trip abroad on November 3.
A freeze on several fronts
Erdogan’s comments suggest he has “thrown in the freezer, if not completely abandoned, the rapprochement that Turkey and Israel were pursuing,” said Wolfango Piccoli, co-chair of political risk advisory group Teneo.
These efforts to repair ties follow a decade of tensions, after Israeli commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish aid ship, in 2010, killing 10 Turkish activists. The ship was attempting to break the Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza.
On November 4, the Turkish Foreign Ministry recalled its ambassador to Tel Aviv, citing Israel’s refusal to accept a ceasefire, “continued attacks on civilians” and denial of entry. free from humanitarian aid.
It was the culmination of a sharp decline in links since October 7.
On October 20, Erdogan declared that Israeli operations amounted to “genocide.” At a rally on October 28, Erdogan called Israel a “war criminal” for its bombing of Gaza since the Hamas cross-border attack three weeks earlier.
The same day, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen officially recalled all Israeli diplomats from Turkey. The volume of trade between the two countries has also fallen by 50 percent since October 7, Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat said at a press conference in Kuwait last week.
The rift is the latest in the often stormy but generally beneficial relations between Turkey and Israel since its creation as a state in 1948.
Early recognition of Israel
Relations between Turkey and Israel since the latter’s establishment have generally been characterized by warmer ties.
Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel’s sovereignty in 1949, less than a year after declaring independence. Ankara officially opened its first diplomatic office in Israel in 1950.
Continued Palestinian support
Yet Turkey’s support for Palestinian self-determination has been consistent, even as it has tried to keep its relations with Israel afloat.
During the 1967 Six-Day War, Ankara joined calls for Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian lands it occupied – the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights – but resisted demands from Arab states to sever diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv. .
In 1979, Yasser Arafat traveled to Ankara to open the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The following year, relations with Israel were strained again due to what Turkey called Tel Aviv’s “inconciliatory” policies, which included Israel’s decision to claim Jerusalem as its capital.
But when Turkey recognized Palestine as a state in 1988 – becoming the first country with diplomatic relations with Israel to do so – it refused to grant the Palestinian envoy full diplomatic status, after Israeli complaints.
Shared interests with Israel
In the 1980s, trade and tourism between Turkey and Israel was growing. State-owned Turkish Airlines launched direct flights to Israel in 1986. In 1993, a Turkish foreign minister visited Israel for the first time.
From the mid-1990s, there has been close defense and intelligence cooperation between the two states – both closely supported by the United States and sharing concerns about potential threats from neighbors such as Syria, Iraq and Iran.
Two defense deals were signed in 1996, paving the way for a strategic military partnership including the modernization of F-4 and F-5 jets, M-60 tanks and helicopters.
Turkey, Israel and the United States participated in joint air and naval exercises in the Eastern Mediterranean until 2009.
Erdogan’s balance
Turkey maintained ties with Israel after the landslide election victory of Erdogan’s Justice and Development party in 2002. Erdogan visited Tel Aviv as prime minister three years later, presenting himself as a possible mediator between Israelis and Palestinians.
In 2004, Erdogan condemned Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin, calling it “state terrorism”, reflecting Turkey’s broader support for the Palestinians, and Hamas in particular.
Yet during high-level visits in 2006 and 2007, Turkey worked to resolve tensions between Syria and Israel over Syrian involvement in Lebanon and support for Palestinian groups and Hezbollah.
In 2007, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul offered to help secure the release of three captured soldiers: Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas from 2006 to 2011, and Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, both held by Hezbollah from 2006 until their bodies were found. returned to Israel in 2008. Then-Israeli President Shimon Peres thanked Turkey, along with Egypt and Germany, for helping to free Shalit.
The three-week war on Gaza in 2008-2009 increased tensions between Turkey and Israel.
The breakdown
The assault on the Turkish aid ship Mavi Marmara led to a diplomatic row, which saw Ankara expel the Israeli ambassador.
Official relations remained frosty until 2016, when the two countries agreed to a compensation deal and a path to normalization of relations.
But two years later, two events put an end to these normalization efforts: dozens of Palestinian demonstrators were killed by Israeli security forces near the separation barrier built by Israel around Gaza and the United States decided to move their embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Despite renewed diplomatic tensions, business between Turkey and Israel continued to flourish. Between 2010, the year of the Mavi Marmara incident, and 2021, trade volume more than doubled, from $3.4 billion to $8.4 billion.
Over the past two years, Erdogan has sought to improve relations with Israel as part of a broader foreign policy aimed at ironing out divisive ties with regional powers such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Arab Emirates. United.
Last year, Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Ankara and ambassadors were appointed in both capitals. Erdogan met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time in September and they both pledged greater cooperation between their countries.
The horrors of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Erdogan’s hardening rhetoric, however, appear to have blocked these plans.
Last month, he canceled plans to visit Israel. At the start of the current war, Erdogan spoke with several world leaders and offered to mediate between Hamas and Israel. That suggestion, said Piccoli de Teneo, seems to have evaporated in recent days.
