What Turkey does not know about the Israeli society and the State of Israel on which numerous commentaries have been made is much greater than the usual paradigms. The developments and the Palmer report declared within the following period after the Mavi Marmara Raid and have disturbed the relationships between the two countries.
The reasons underlying these disrupted relationships are the Turkey’s demands, namely compensation, official apology and the removal of the siege on Gaza. On the other hand, the coalition government in Israel is seeking to re-establish the relations. The negotiations that had already proven to be inconclusive after the Haifa common diplomacy and the Geneve meetings hit bottom following the Palmer Report. In this period, it may be said that the two countries that are in need of a new paradigm are seeking a way out. While the popular uprisings in the Middle East known as the Arab Spring is effecting the security of present states, they lead changes in the regimes of the other states. Today the Camp David period has been greatly destroyed, and today the Arab-Israeli conflict has broken the walls of fear. The fear has been broken with the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the protesters in the conflict areas, especially the Palestinians, have caused a sympathetical view about the Turkish State to emerge. This positive approach has been followed closely by the Arab and Western media and the remarks “We want a leader like Recep Tayyip Erdogan” of the protesters have been displayed on televisions. What is this popular leader seek? What will be the effects of this? These questions will show their effects in the next 5-10 years during the democratization process of the states in the region. In the region where the popular Arab leaders have been falling one by one, the seek for alliance of the US. Highlighted the Turkey under the leadership of Erdogan. The process that began with the popular movements have pushed the Turkey into the discussions of being a model country and analysis have been conducted on the issue by the falling regimes. Within the framework of the discussions about the Turkish Model, a report has been prepared by social scientist Mensur Akgun from the TESEV, one of the leading think-tanks of Turkey. In his report named “The Perception of Turkey in the middle East 2011” (Ortadoğu’da Türk Algısı, TESEV 2011), a survey in which 2,267 participants from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Iran took part has been carried out. While 66 % of the participant have expressed their positive opinions about the Turkish Model, 18 % of the participants have expressed that such a model process is not possible but it will not be effective in the Turkish Model. On the other hand, in light of these discussions, it is possible to understand how the Arab people and Turks have united by looking at the approximately 4 million Arab people who came to Turkey as from the year 2011. The Turkish-Israeli relations have the possibility to transform into active tension in the spring of the Arab security paradigms have been destroyed over time. Egypt, where the relations of elite basis between the countries brought by the Camp David order and military domination rooted after Mubarek, poses a danger for Israel. A new development in the Sinai can trigger radical Jewish-Islamic groups. Especially, in the case of Islam based groups come into the power by elections in those countries, the presence of Israel in the region would fall into danger. In this context, the fact that Turkey, backed up by this wind of democracy, freezes its ties with Israel is a crucial issues on which Israel should think carefully in respect to the legitimacy of the Arab-Israel relations. However, this does not mean that Turkey-Israeli relations are broken up completely. According to the 2011 data, trading volume of 3 billion dollars constitutes an important interaction area for two countries.
While Turkish construction companies working at the reconstruction of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, approximately 5 thousand Turkish workers are working in Israel. Although the military exercise treaties are suspended, it is obvious that, after the visit of General Panetta of US, Turkey intends to establish close relations with Israel. Turkey may show its attempts in this respect by cooperating again with Israel. That the treaties made in the field of trade are not cancelled shows the importance Turkey gives to the trade with the Israel. In this positive atmosphere, Netanyahu Government has not brought the issues such as Armenian issue or PKK terror organization. This can contribute to Turkey’s taking more steps forward. The embracing message of the Palestinian leader Haney, and Turkey’s observing a number of factors as in the Khaled Meshal issue, is due to the public integrated portrayal of a leader with the change in this process.
Within this period, Ankara is trying the sincerity of the leaders of the Middle East, and looking after the relations with the Israel, as well. It may be said that the coalition in Israel is important for the relations with Turkey since the hardships arising from the coalition are among the factors that clip Turkey’s wings. The unsteady attitude in Israel causes Turkey to maintain its current paradigm and prevents the cooperation with Turkey. Israel, without Turkey, cannot develop a policy beyond the getting reaction of the Arabs in the region. Turkey maintains its relation with Israel at a certain level and considers that to balance the relations are of its interest. Turkey, taking advantage of the fact that Israel cannot adopt a common attitude because of the coalition in the country, secures its position in the Arab Spring and pushes Israel that wants to evaluate its security once more to adopt a new paradigm. This paradigm will widen the economic integration between Turkey and Arab peoples. On the contrary, it would not be wrong to say Israel’s Arab held range of motion would be restricted. The good relations that cannot be settled during the AKP government were established during Erbakan’s Refah Yol (Welfare Road) government, Suleyman Demirel’s DP and Tansu Ciller. Another point to be noted is that the relationships between the peoples of Israel and Turkey are not poor, actually. The Jewish community in Turkey hopes for relations to be on the way, and good relations with the AKP government will affect the interest of Israel positively in the region.
Emrah Usta
Center for American Studies at Süleyman Sah University
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