Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Israel in 1949 and gradually established normal relations with it. Jewish leaders also have paid special attention to maintaining and expanding relations with Turkey. In the meantime, despite so many ups and downs in the following decades, bilateral relations between them still remained. The 1990s decade was the peak of defense, security, military and political relations between Turkey and Israel. (Photo quoted from Yahoo’s news)
The presence of Islamists in power in Turkey, although to some extent affected security and military relations, has increased the scope of economic relations with Israel. Since 2010, relationships have entered a period of intense tension and declarative approaches. However, despite the decrease in the level of political relations, the two sides have practically not reduced the level of their economic relations and increased it with a slight slope. In other words, the volume of trade between the two countries has increased 3.4 times in 18 years. In 2020, the volume of trade between Turkey and Israel was $ 6.2 billion. Ankara exported $ 4.7 billion worth of products to Israel in 2020.
Last year, Ankara sought to boost relations with Israel. Also, with Biden's victory, Turkey was forced to abandon its ostensibly hostile policies against Israel.
On the other hand, in recent months, it has tried to maintain internal stability and strengthen the AKP by taking anti-Israeli positions and supporting the Palestinian cause. In fact, Erdogan's two-pronged policy toward Israel is more like a pendulum.
Erdogan never severed ties with Israel after coming to power. He knows that he needs the Israeli lobby, the rich Jews, and maintaining Turkey’s relationship with Israel, and so on. It should also be noted that the Turks have come to understand that maintaining proper political relations is the basis for the expansion of economic, security and defense relations and increases the volume of economic relations.
Importing gas from Israeli could reduce Turkey's dependence on gas imports from Russia and Iran and make Turkey a bridge for Israeli gas exports to Europe. On the other hand, Turkey is an active member of NATO and is inclined to participate in Western political and military structures. At the same time, Israel is a partner of Western military and political institutions.
At the same time, the extensive membership or cooperation and the common desire of Turkey and Israel in Western institutions, especially NATO, cannot be accompanied by enmity between the two sides. In other words, Turkey cannot be both an enemy of Israel and at the same time, have a suitable position in Western political and military institutions. Moreover, it does not appear that Turkey intends to jeopardize its strategic and economic interests in a long-term strategic conflict with Israel.
Also by normalizing relations with Israel, Turkey is trying to prevent Israel from taking sides in the region, especially with Cyprus and Greece.
What is clear is that Turkey, on the one hand, wants to be at the forefront of diplomatic efforts on Palestine. It has been trying for a long time to play a greater role in the Palestinian challenges, hosting Hamas delegations, and so on. It also does not want widespread tensions with Israel to be a cause of widespread damage to its strategic and economic interests in the Mediterranean region.
Therefore, due to the complete lack of conflict of interests between Turkey and Israel in many areas, we could see an increase in relations between the two sides. But it is inconceivable that Turkey-Israel defense and security relations will return to the level of relations of the 1990s.
Farzad Ramezani Bonesh
Senior Researcher and Analyst of International Affairs
