Published in the Jerusalem Post, 10 January 2023
Ever
since Recep Tayyip Erdogan gained power as Turkey’s prime minister in 2003,
Turco-Israeli relations have been on a see-saw, now up, now down – though more
often down than up. This is scarcely
surprising since Erdogan is a deeply committed devotee of the Muslim
Brotherhood, an organization whose DNA is imbued with antagonism towards Jews. However, he is also a consummate politician,
well aware of the need, from time to time, to temper his aversion to Israel
with sweet words and conciliatory gestures.
On
December 27 Erdogan announced to the world that Israeli prime minister Benjamin
Netanyahu was Adolf Hitler reborn, comparing Israel's campaign to destroy Hamas
in Gaza to the systematic annihilation of the Jewish people by the Nazis. In a speech at an event in Ankara, he
demanded of an absent Netanyahu: “How are you any different from Hitler?”
adding, to rapturous applause: “What Netanyahu is doing is no less than what
Hitler did.”
A riposte was readily to
hand. Netanyahu resorted to the social
media platform X (once Twitter), and accused Erdogan, with some justification, of
carrying out "genocide against the Kurds." Erdogan, he wrote, “is the last one to give
us a lesson in morals…He holds the world record of imprisoning journalists who
object to his regime."
Anyone familiar with the
to and fro of interchanges between Ankara and Jerusalem would have experienced
a feeling of déjà vu. This particular exchange of insults was
nothing new. In July 2028, roundly condemning Israel’s just-passed “nation state law”, Erdogan asserted: "Hitler's
spirit has re-emerged in some Israeli leaders." Netanyahu’s response? "Erdoğan is slaughtering Syrians and
Kurds and imprisoning tens of thousands of his fellow citizens,” adding “Turkey
is becoming a dark dictatorship under Erdogan.”
During his early years as prime minister, back in the early 2000s, Erdogan was careful not to promote too radical an agenda too soon. Despite his Islamist views, he made an official visit to Israel in 2005 to be feted by Israel’s then-prime minister, Ariel Sharon. However it was not long before the previously close relations between Turkey and Israel began to sour. The turning point came in 2009 with the first conflict between Israel and Hamas, which had seized power in the Gaza strip and had been firing rockets indiscriminately into Israel.
In the annual international gathering at Davos that year, Erdogan could not restrain himself. Rounding on Israeli president Shimon Peres, Erdogan called the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip a "crime against humanity" and "barbaric."
What followed was the
great barren waste of the Mavi Marmara affair. On May 31, 2010 an encounter on the high seas
between Israeli soldiers and a Turkish flotilla nominally on a humanitarian
mission to Gaza, ended with nine of those on board the leading vessel, the Mavi
Marmara, losing their lives. Erdogan
manipulated the event into a rupture of Turkish-Israeli relations lasting six
years. The affair was finally put to rest only in June 2016.
When on May 14, 2018 then-US
President Donald Trump formally confirmed his intention to relocate the US embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Erdogan declared three days of national mourning. The
next day Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador and withdrew its ambassador in
Tel Aviv. In response, Israel expelled Turkey's consul in Jerusalem.
The next two years saw
Turkey’s international standing slump to a new low. By the autumn of 2020 Erdogan was in the
process of purchasing the Russian S-400 anti-aircraft system,
designed specifically to destroy aircraft like US’s state-of-the-art
multi-purpose F-35 fighter. Reasonably
enough, Trump refused to allow Turkey, a member of NATO, to acquire it ejecting
Erdogan from the F-35 program and imposing sanctions on Turkey.
The EU had also
sanctioned Turkey. In this case it was in
reaction to Erdogan continuing to explore for gas in what is internationally
recognized as Cypriot waters. The UK, now no longer in the EU, imposed
sanctions on Turkey on the same grounds.
Turkey’s relations with
Egypt had been frozen solid ever since 2013, when Muslim Brotherhood president
Mohamed Morsi was ousted by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Erdogan expelled
Egypt’s ambassador, and Sisi reciprocated. Relations with Saudi
Arabia had been overshadowed for years by the assassination of journalist Jamal
Khashoggi in Saudi’s consulate in Istanbul.
As for Israel, it had
long been obvious that Erdogan seized every opportunity to denounce Israel in
the most extravagant terms and to act against it whenever he
could. Not the least of his hostile moves was to support Hamas and
to provide a base in Istanbul for senior Hamas officials, granting at least
twelve of them Turkish citizenship.
In short Turkey, in
pursuit of its own political priorities, had fences to mend with, inter
alia, the US, the EU, the UK, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
This was the background
to Erdogan’s sudden and dramatic change of tone on the international stage. Erdogan, or his advisers, must have realized
that to achieve his strategic objective of extending and stabilizing Turkey’s
power base across the Middle East, a fundamental reassessment of tactics was
called for. Out of what must have been a root and branch analysis,
came a plan to address the problem – Turkey would embark on a charm offensive,
involving “reconciliation” or “rebooting” of relationships with one-time
enemies, opponents or unfriendly states.
Accordingly Erdogan set
about making conciliatory overtures to Germany, the EU, Saudi Arabia and even
Greece. Israel, too, received
indications that a rapprochement was sought and, doubtless despite misgivings,
on March 9, 2022 President Herzog became the first Israeli president to visit Turkey
in 15 years.
In an interview on
Turkish TV at the time, Erdogan said: “This visit could open a new chapter in
relations between Turkey and Israel,” adding that he was “ready to take steps
in Israel’s direction in all areas.”
The new chapter lasted about 18 months. By October 25 he was praising Hamas as “liberators” and condemning what he described as “the Israeli regime’s unlawful and unrestrained attacks against civilians.” In short, Erdogan had reverted to his default mode.
Published in the Jerusalem Post, and in the Jerusalem Post online titled: "Erdogan reverts to old, inflammatory self-opinion" on 10 January 2024:
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-781488
No comments:
Post a Comment