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After the weekly Muslim prayer on Friday, Erdogan told reporters that Turkey and Israel are cooperating in the field of intelligence, but that “Israel’s Palestinian policy is unacceptable to us.”
Since then, the Sabah newspaper, a spokesperson for the Turkish regime, has given Erdogan’s statement a prominent place at the top of its website, meaning it is a carefully considered government policy. Israel and Turkey have dynamic trade but tense diplomatic relations. Relationships are generally characterized by a very bad mood, sometimes pure insults from Erdogan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
President Erdogan’s probe balloon it should be seen as an attempt to appease the next administration, which views Turkey with completely different eyes than Donald Trump. This week, Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced significant, but not devastating, U.S. sanctions against Turkey, retaliation for Erdogan’s decision to provide NATO country Turkey with a Russian air defense against the wishes of states. United.
However, the situation may get worse for Turkey. One of the few issues on which Democrats and Republicans make the same assessment is Erdogan’s opinion. When Trump, who has laid his hand on Erdogan, hands over Biden, Turkey is exposed to tougher disciplinary measures, not just for its Russian arms purchases. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served under George W Bush and Barack Obama, in a debate article the other day called on Biden to take a hard line against “NATO members moving against autocracy, Turkey, Poland and Hungary “. Such measures against the indebted Turkish economy would hurt Erdogan before the next elections and the centenary of the Republic in 2023.
Joe Biden.
Photo: Joshua Roberts
So what does this have to do with Israel? Erdogan’s AKP, like other parties in the vicinity of the Muslim Brotherhood, tends to overestimate Israel’s influence in Washington and the prominence of Jews in the financial world. But the past four years, when Trump has entrusted all Israeli-Palestinian politics to Jewish advisers, they have reinforced this stereotype. Erdogan has long believed that demands for higher interest rates from Turkish banks can be traced back to obscure Jewish forces. A rapprochement with Israel would indirectly strengthen Turkey’s cause in Washington, supposedly in the vicinity of Erdogan.
When the AKP came to power in 2002, the party was much more Western in orientation than it is today. Erdogan did not stop the intimate military cooperation with Israel. The first serious breach occurred in the new year 2008-2009, when Israel bombed the Gaza Strip with 750 civilian casualties as a result. At the time, Erdogan led the global condemnation of Israel and put solidarity with Gaza at the top of his diplomatic agenda. Turkey was covered in posters condemning Israel’s actions and several leaders of the Hamas movement received asylum in Turkey. In the summer of 2010, after Israeli soldiers shot dead nine Turkish activists on a ship bound for Gaza, Erdogan suspended military cooperation with Israel and minimized diplomatic relations.
Benjamin Netanyahu.
Photo: Yonathan Sindel / AFP
Three years later Israel apologized to Turkey for the fatal shooting and paid damages to family members. But new clashes between Israel and Hamas and other disputes prevented relations from recovering. Today, they are devastated by three contentious issues. Hamas operations in the West Bank are led from Turkey by Salah Aruri, one of the main leaders of the movement. This, according to Israel, is the Turkish complicity of terrorism.
Another difficult dispute concerns Turkey’s presence in East Jerusalem, partly through investment in buildings and partly through support for Palestinian institutions. In October, Erdogan declared that Jerusalem’s holy sites actually belonged to Turkey, invoking the long control of the city by the Ottoman Empire from 1519 to 1917.
But the hottest dispute between countries refers to the plans of Israel, Egypt, Greece and Cyprus for a gas pipeline between the gas reservoirs under the seabed and the European market. For more than a year, Turkey has not recognized the territorial waters of Cyprus and Greece and has repeatedly challenged them. Israeli marine research vessels around Cyprus have been harassed by Turkish warships.
In Jerusalem, Biden is expected to react more strongly than Trump to the increasingly bold Turkish chess moves in the eastern Mediterranean.
