RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISRAEL?
Abstract:
This paper addresses the relations between nations of Turkey and Israel. It reviews the history of the relations since Israel’s independence and Turkish government and politics towards this. It summarizes the declining of relations between these two countries and their continuing relations that are worsened through last years and also it explains the solution to this problem.
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISRAEL?
History Background of Turkey and Israel relations:
Israel, created a nation in the land of the Palestinian Arabs, millions of Palestinians have
fled their homeland forced with weapons used by Israel Army. The government of USA was the
first country to recognize Israel. Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize the state of
Israel.
Israel, in fact, destroyed the Ottoman state and order in the region as the last nail in the
coffin nailed. Nevertheless, the Republic of Turkey, on the contrary on March 28th 1949 was the
first Muslim country to recognize Israel.
This recognition took place during the reign of Ismet İnönü, the help from the United
States, according to experts, was to underline the country's Western identity and to get the
international Jewish support. According to Turkish Foreign Minister Sadak Israel had now
become a reality all over the world and Turkey had to recognize the fact that Israel was an
independent country.
Hızlı
stated that “The recognition of Israel was one of the most complicated
problems regarding international relations and Turkey had to overcome the problem of
recognition of Israel's legitimacy that provided a major contribution.” (2014)
Turkey, not only recognized the process that enabled the creation of Israel, they left
Palestinians alone, for example in December 1948, despite the opposition of the Palestinian Arab
state of Palestine Conciliation Commission not only recognition, the process that enables the
creation of Israel, the Palestinians were left alone. Example, in December 1948, despite the
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISRAEL?
opposition of the Palestinian Arab state of Palestine Conciliation Commission in support of the
establishment of Israel, Turkey denied the Palestinian State and helped Israel.
In the background of the Cold War, Israel was USA’s ally; on the other hand most of the Arab powers were nearer to the Soviet Union’s policy. According to Can and Mercan “Turkey tracked a balanced policy towards Israel and the Arab world, because they had enormous strategic interests with Israel and they had religious and cultural ties with Arabic countries.
“ (2014) Throughout the Cold War, Turkey remained out of Middle East politics and avoided presenting itself as an ally of Israel. It kept its relations with Israel at the level of key of mission after the 1956 Arab-Israeli war. However In 1980, Turkey opposed Israel's announcement of Jerusalem as its capital and removed its consulate. Between 1983 and 1989, Prime Minister Turgut Ozal underlined improved relations with the Arab world. As will be debated in some detail below, Israel gained new meaning in the eyes of the Turkish security formation after the Gulf War of 1991, because the strengthened Kurdish rebellion in northern Iraq sponsored from Baghdad's loss of territorial authority there and from the logistical support of Syria and Iran. The militarization of Turkish politics in the late 1990s provided the essential context for a security alliance between Turkey and Israel.
A positive atmosphere in the Israeli’s and Palestine process rose in early 1990s and had an enormous effect on the rise of the mutual diplomatic relations with Turkey, where an ambassador was presented in Israel in a meeting with president Chaim Herzog, on 23 March 1992 in Tel Aviv.
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISRAEL?
Israel maintained a diplomatic mission in Turkey, there is an embassy located in the capital city of Ankara, and also they have a General Consulate that is located in Istanbul. Prior to the recent problems and undergoing bad relations, the Israel ambassador to Turkey was Gabby Levy and the Israeli consul-general was Mordechai Amihai.
“Turkey and US have a major difference in the Turkey’s involvement of Turkey’s relations with Israel.” AKÇAY and ANLI (2013) However Turkey’s relations with Israel have been more good rather than bad, since Turkey joined NATO in 1952. In the other hand since 2001 when AKP came to power and to rule the government and country for 15 years now the relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv have been decent with too many arguments going on. Turkey as a country with a large population of Sunni Muslims have tried to keep closer ties with Sunni Arabs rather than with Israel.
Turkey also is known for their support towards Hamas( a terrorist organization), this support led to huge problems between countries. “Turkey also opposed the protest in France regarding the attendance of Benjamin Netanyahu, whom President Recep Erdogan considers hima terrorist himself that massacred 2,500 in Gaza.” (Ates 2009)
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISRAEL? The Problem
Prior to problems Turkey had with Israel throughout history with Israel, the main problems started when AKP political party took over the government in 2001 and has been in control of government since then. AKP is a political party with current president and former prime minister Recep Tayip Erdogan, his party and his view is known as more influenced by Islamic culture and they strongly appeal their religious and political views in public. President Erdogan has created a view that Israel should be seen as a terrorist country that destroys human rights of Palestinians and does not accept the independence of Palestine, that was granted by UN votes, also they still continue to occupy the Palestinian territories and kill civilians. Turkey and Israel had most of their agreements and trade rights canceled, since these acts started from Israel’s government. “The main issue was the Mavi Marmara vessel that departed from Turkey to send aid and help to poor Palestinian civilians that were occupied from Israel’s Army”. (Oğuzlu 2010) Mavi Marmara was a part of flotilla making way from Turkey to the Gaza Strip, their aim was to breakthrough Israel’s blockade that was placed on its national seas. However Mavi Marmara failed to answer Israel’s defensive system that called and alerted them to leave their national seas, since they did not had a proper permission to cross them, Mavi Marmara continued their route and they faced Israel’s army, they departed to their ship and were forced to kill nine Turkish citizens. After Mavi Marmara incident, Turkey withdrew their Ambassador and they were on a verge of declaring war to Israel. However Israel’s politic did not appeal to be a correct one, they failed to apologize for incident until after 2 years, where Benjamin Netanyahu apologized personally to Turkish government, population and declared that Israel’s government is ready to help the families of victims.
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISRAEL?
The problems that occur most rarely between Israel and Turkey are because of religious issues and issues regarding the independence of Palestine. However Israel’s first prime minister was a student in Ottoman Empire, David Ben-Gurion was one of key people to help and gather a garrison of Jewish soldiers, where they could help the Ottoman Empire when they were facing enormous problems through their empire, his thoughts were that a Jew state would be best under the management of Ottoman empire. “However his conquest failed since Ottoman empire was going through high decline and they could not handle their problems that they were facing”. (Nachmani 2005)
The religious problem between Israel mainly Jews and Turkey mainly populated with Muslims, was not an issue through history since
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISRAEL?
The Purpose of The Study:
The purpose of this study is to get more knowledge about the past relations and history between two countries, that back in the history worked closely and had great relations within the Ottoman empire boundaries. Another key point of this study is to find a solution to bring back the good old days that Israel’s Jews had with Turkish government and mostly Turkish Muslims. Once upon a time Jews were under the government of Ottoman Empire and they had many workshops, banks and properties that were in the territories of Ottoman Empire. However tables turned to another point of view, when Israel declared independency in the Palestine’s territories, also the religious view of Israel changed and most of Israel’s Jews became a part of Zionist movement, where the movement called for Jewish race supremacy. This study will also explain how Jews turned their back to Ottoman empire’s successor Turkey.
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISRAEL?
THE STRATEGIES THAT WERE IN TURKEY’S AND ISRAEL’S POLITICS:
Turkey started a new politic view when AKP came to power, they started a new public movement against Israel, since Israel started to force Palestinians to fled their homes or kill them.
“Turkey’s main strategy is to increase their popularity and allow Israel to understand their power that can be destroy Israel’s forces, however in the other hand Israel had big treaties with Turkey to sell Tanks, Missiles, Rifles and even Armed Attacking Planes, Turkey broke down these treaties and started creating their own army needs.“. (Nauck and Suckow 2006) This treaty was one of main treaties that kept the relation between Turkey and Israel ongoing, Israel’s strategy to provide Turkey with Army needs would be beneficial for them, since they knew the products that they were selling and could use these facts as a counter attack against Turkey. Turkey managed to change this strategy and bring their own Army supplies and even save money and protect themselves for any upcoming Israel intelligence attacks or even armed forces attacks.
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISRAEL?
THE POLITICS USED TO PREVENT FURTHER CRYSIS BETWEEN ISRAEL AND TURKEY:
Israel and Turkey relations started to heat up after the Mavi Marmara incident and a potential war between these countries would have created an enormous damage to Middle-East and international countries.
“Most of the countries managed to cool down the relations between Turkey and Israel, but USA was the main factor that cooled down the relations between countries.” (Yavuz 1997)
USA is the ally of both Israel and Turkey and any potential crisis between these countries would have made USA take side in one of the countries and this would have let to a bigger side, since one of the other countries that were left alone would have shifted their attention to get help from other countries that are not allies of USA or do not have the Nato membership.
“USA managed in a swift fashion to cool down the relations, since they needed both countries help for the stability of Middle-East”. (Kosebalaban 2010) After the Mavi Marmara crisis, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to apologize for the incident and he continuously supported his army’s decision to attack and even kill nine Turkish Citizens. This was one of the main reasons why Turkish government continued their attacking policy against Israel. “USA managed to cool down the Israel’s prime minister and even making him apologize for his decision to attack the Turkish flotilla, also Israel offered help to the victims of families.
“( Murinson 2008) These actions managed to cool down the heated relations between Turkey and Israel, they also led to a meeting between Prime Ministers of both countries. However in the summer of 2014 the relations between two countries got even worse, since Israel started a new
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISREAL? attacking campaign to Gaza Strip, after Palestine was accepted as an independent country by majority of votes in a UN meeting. Turkey highly rejected Israel’s policy and called back their ambassador in Israel. These attacks were the turning point to a worse relation than even before.
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISREAL?
The Solution to the Problem between Turkey Israel and:
The solution to this problem is almost impossible for the moment since the view points of these countries are very different to one another.
Firstly to find a proper solution for this problem, we have to find the key problem that is between these countries, that can create an enormous danger to the stability of the middle-east and even can endanger the world peace.
The key point of the problem is the AKP political party that is controlling the government now, starting from this point we find out that since their first years they have been a political party that does not supports Israel’s policy of attacking Palestinians. Also AKP strongly opposed the ongoing zionist movement in Israel that is leading to a Jewish Supremacy around the world and can create nationalism inside jews.
Back in the days where Turkey had another political party controlling the government the relations between countries were better and they did not oppose each others choices inside their countries. By changing the political party or even the viewpoint of the political party , the relations would start to shift to a better condition. Firstly AKP is known as a party that supports the Arabic countries and they are favoring Muslims rather than Jews. “Bringing an indifferent political party that do not have viewpoints to support Arabs or Muslims, Jews can create a better relation with Turkey’s Muslims”. ( Arslan 2005) Also AKP is highly investing in army and this causes problems and even makes Israel afraid of the power of Turkish Army that can destroy anything at any time. Another political party that tries to bring balance rather than trying to influence another country with their army powers.
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISREAL?
Another solution to the problem is acceptance of Palestine as independent country by Israel and even help them to create a democratic country without any influence from Israel.If Israel accepts the independence of Palestine, this would led to a long lasting peace between Turkey and Israel, even further improvements of relations. Also this can led to a improvements of relations not even with Turkey but with many Arabic and Muslim countries that strongly oppose Israel’s Politic of attacking Palestine continuously.
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISREAL?
Conclusion:
In conclusion Turkey and Israel relations carry a great importance for the stability of the Middle-East and carries a great danger for worlds economic, trade and do not allow countries to take sides between countries. “Turkey a hugely Muslim populated country carries a great importance, since they are a country that protects and helps the UN and Nato to stabilize the relations between Arabic countries”. (Bishku 2006) Also as a USA ally Turkey should protect the interest of both themselves and worlds interest, the hatred and heated relations between countries are not only damaging them, they even damage the world and ongoing trades between international routes.
Israel on the other hand have a policy that do not accept and only attacks Palestinian civilians, even though they created a nation in Palestinian lands they strongly oppose that Palestinians ever had the right to create a nation before them. The policy of Israel should be changed in order to gain a stability and a peace between Arabic countries and Israel.
The route to peace between countries is helped and should even be helped more by USA and other international powers in order to protect their own interests and lives of millions of people, the ongoing crisis can create a huge death rate in middle-east and can create more revolutions around Arabic countries that are controlled mostly by terrorists and extremists.
To sum it up a peace between countries and stopping of the ongoing bad relations would be beneficial for the world and the ongoing trades that are damaged by the relations are destroyed and do not lead to further improvements. Israel is widely known as a country with a great defensive system, they create great products and armed robots in order to protect their
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISREAL? country and citizens from upcoming dangers. Israel should be granted a special condition that they are not going to be attacked by a Arabic force that can destroy them and the peace that is granted can create enormous trade rights that were before, these trade routes would be beneficial for both Turkey and Israel, since the trade between countries can improve the economic situation in their region. As dominant forces in the regions Turkey and Israel would create a dominant force that would rule for years to come and the economic, trade, army and intelligence situation would be highly increased and upcoming terrorist attacks or revolutions would be prevented.
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISREAL?
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RUNNING HEADER:WHAT IS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ISREAL?
Murinson, A. (2008). Azerbaijan-Turkey-Israel Relations: The Energy Factor. Middle East, 12(3), 47.
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