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ANKARA MUST DECIDE
Jerusalem Post
Oct 12, 2009 19:56
Who would have thought - Turkey and Armenia agreeing to normalize
political relations. Armenia's president planning to attend a football
match in Turkey. And George Papandreou, the new Greek prime minister,
making Turkey the destination of his first trip abroad.
These are encouraging examples of how age-old animosities are being
relegated to the dustbin of history.
Too bad, then, that Ankara appears to be simultaneously doing
everything it can to junk its relationship with the Jewish state.
On Sunday, in an unprecedented slap in the face, Turkey cancelled joint
military exercises that were to have included pilots from Israel and
NATO. At first, the Turkish Foreign Ministry lamely denied politics was
involved. Then Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu admitted on CNN that
only when the "situation in Gaza" is improved could "a new atmosphere
in Turkish-Israeli relations" be established.
Analysts in Jerusalem suspect the government of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using the unfortunate civilian deaths during
Operation Cast Lead as a pretext for distancing Turkey from Israel -
diplomatically, strategically and economically.
ORDINARY Israelis find it hard to believe that faced with similar
provocations - its population pounded by 8,000 rockets, murderous
cross-border incursions, the kidnapping of one of its soldiers, the
refusal of the enemy to abide by a cease-fire - the Turkish military
would have refrained from taking action to stop the rocket fire and
reestablish its deterrence out of fear that in defending its own
citizens the lives of enemy civilians would be jeopardized.
Indeed, it is debatable whether more Palestinians died at the hands
of Israel in the Gaza conflict than Muslim Kurds died in Ankara's
repeated bombardments of northern Iraq (though Turkey insists that
the only Kurdish loses were to livestock).
Political scientist Efraim Inbar is convinced that Erdogan's Islamic
AKP party places greater value on Tur ith the Muslim world than on
its political and cultural links to the West. Or does Turkey expect
to jettison its relationship with Israel, cozy up to Iran and Hamas,
and yet maintain strong ties with Washington and Brussels?
ISRAEL'S relationship with Turkey has always had its ups and
downs. Turkey voted against the 1947 UN Partition Resolution to create
two states - Jewish and Arab - in Palestine, but it quickly established
diplomatic relations with Israel. In the 1970s, weathering an economic
crisis, it began building bridges to the Arab world. By the 1980s,
thousands of Turks were working throughout the Middle East. The
Iran-Iraq War cemented ties between Turkey and the Arabs when Saudi
Arabia began supplying oil to Ankara.
Even during periods when the Turkish military was in power, relations
with Israel were sometimes sacrificed to persuade the masses that
the government had Islamic bona fides. In 1975, Turkey recognized
the PLO though the group was then publicly committed to Israel's
destruction. In 1979, Turkey refused to participate in the Eurovision
Song Contest because it was being held in Jerusalem. Following
the Knesset's passage, in 1980, of the Basic Law affirming united
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Ankara closed its consulate in our
capital. Turkey even condemned Israel's 1981 raid on Saddam Hussein's
nuclear reactor.
Now, with the AKP in power, relations have deteriorated more
systematically. In August 2008, Turkey broke ranks with the West by
welcoming Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Just before the outbreak of the Gaza
war, Erdogan became angry at what he felt was his shabby treatment
by Ehud Olmert while Turkey was mediating between Jerusalem and
Damascus - a factor in his vituperative outbursts against Israel
during the conflict.
OTTOMAN Turkey sought to hold on to its empire by using pan-Islam to
legitimize its rule over the Arabs. But Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded
modern Turkey as Western-oriented, secular and nationalist. Islam was
disestablished. The Turkish army performed a watchdog functi aelis knew
that no matter what abuse Turkish politicians might heap on Israel,
our two militaries continued to cooperate at the strategic level. Is
that, too, now over?
Turkey is an irreplaceable ally. Israelis want our two countries to
enjoy cordial relations despite everything that's happened. The onus
is now on Ankara to make plain that it, too, wants the relationship to
continue. It would thereby also be signaling that Turkey wants to be
a bridge between Islam and the West - instead of yet another barrier.
Jerusalem Post
Oct 12, 2009 19:56
Who would have thought - Turkey and Armenia agreeing to normalize
political relations. Armenia's president planning to attend a football
match in Turkey. And George Papandreou, the new Greek prime minister,
making Turkey the destination of his first trip abroad.
These are encouraging examples of how age-old animosities are being
relegated to the dustbin of history.
Too bad, then, that Ankara appears to be simultaneously doing
everything it can to junk its relationship with the Jewish state.
On Sunday, in an unprecedented slap in the face, Turkey cancelled joint
military exercises that were to have included pilots from Israel and
NATO. At first, the Turkish Foreign Ministry lamely denied politics was
involved. Then Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu admitted on CNN that
only when the "situation in Gaza" is improved could "a new atmosphere
in Turkish-Israeli relations" be established.
Analysts in Jerusalem suspect the government of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using the unfortunate civilian deaths during
Operation Cast Lead as a pretext for distancing Turkey from Israel -
diplomatically, strategically and economically.
ORDINARY Israelis find it hard to believe that faced with similar
provocations - its population pounded by 8,000 rockets, murderous
cross-border incursions, the kidnapping of one of its soldiers, the
refusal of the enemy to abide by a cease-fire - the Turkish military
would have refrained from taking action to stop the rocket fire and
reestablish its deterrence out of fear that in defending its own
citizens the lives of enemy civilians would be jeopardized.
Indeed, it is debatable whether more Palestinians died at the hands
of Israel in the Gaza conflict than Muslim Kurds died in Ankara's
repeated bombardments of northern Iraq (though Turkey insists that
the only Kurdish loses were to livestock).
Political scientist Efraim Inbar is convinced that Erdogan's Islamic
AKP party places greater value on Tur ith the Muslim world than on
its political and cultural links to the West. Or does Turkey expect
to jettison its relationship with Israel, cozy up to Iran and Hamas,
and yet maintain strong ties with Washington and Brussels?
ISRAEL'S relationship with Turkey has always had its ups and
downs. Turkey voted against the 1947 UN Partition Resolution to create
two states - Jewish and Arab - in Palestine, but it quickly established
diplomatic relations with Israel. In the 1970s, weathering an economic
crisis, it began building bridges to the Arab world. By the 1980s,
thousands of Turks were working throughout the Middle East. The
Iran-Iraq War cemented ties between Turkey and the Arabs when Saudi
Arabia began supplying oil to Ankara.
Even during periods when the Turkish military was in power, relations
with Israel were sometimes sacrificed to persuade the masses that
the government had Islamic bona fides. In 1975, Turkey recognized
the PLO though the group was then publicly committed to Israel's
destruction. In 1979, Turkey refused to participate in the Eurovision
Song Contest because it was being held in Jerusalem. Following
the Knesset's passage, in 1980, of the Basic Law affirming united
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Ankara closed its consulate in our
capital. Turkey even condemned Israel's 1981 raid on Saddam Hussein's
nuclear reactor.
Now, with the AKP in power, relations have deteriorated more
systematically. In August 2008, Turkey broke ranks with the West by
welcoming Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Just before the outbreak of the Gaza
war, Erdogan became angry at what he felt was his shabby treatment
by Ehud Olmert while Turkey was mediating between Jerusalem and
Damascus - a factor in his vituperative outbursts against Israel
during the conflict.
OTTOMAN Turkey sought to hold on to its empire by using pan-Islam to
legitimize its rule over the Arabs. But Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded
modern Turkey as Western-oriented, secular and nationalist. Islam was
disestablished. The Turkish army performed a watchdog functi aelis knew
that no matter what abuse Turkish politicians might heap on Israel,
our two militaries continued to cooperate at the strategic level. Is
that, too, now over?
Turkey is an irreplaceable ally. Israelis want our two countries to
enjoy cordial relations despite everything that's happened. The onus
is now on Ankara to make plain that it, too, wants the relationship to
continue. It would thereby also be signaling that Turkey wants to be
a bridge between Islam and the West - instead of yet another barrier.