While Erdoğan created the image of a chilly reception to Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert just ahead of his visit to Ankara Wednesday evening, he also gave signals of a strong Turkish interest in playing a role in the Middle East peace," said a senior Turkish diplomat.It is true that Turkish-Israeli relations have been witnessing ups and downs since the Islamic-based conservative Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government came to power in November 2002, at least at the level of rhetoric. In real life, however, we witness real politics at work in relations between the regions' two non-Arab countries.
Evidence of this is the ongoing military and trade ties between the two.
As of 2005, Israel became Turkey's largest trade partner in the Middle East. Israeli imports to Turkey $900 million and Israel earned $1.2 billion from Turkish exports to Israel
In the News Blaze daily, journalist Calev Ben-David outlines both the economic and the military agreements signed between the two countries since the AK Party came to power in 2002. They vary from cooperation in water projects, agro-technology, Israel becoming a possible transit route via Turkey for Black Sea-Red Sea gas, oil and water pipelines to Ankara brokering the first official talks between Israel and Pakistan in İstanbul in 2005.
Additionally, Turkish-Israeli military cooperation continues in every sphere, from cooperation in intelligence sharing, mutual high-level visits to joint arms production.
It was no coincidence that back in 2002 and in 2005 then-Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök and Turkish Air Force Commander Gen. Faruk Cömert paid unpublicized visits to Israel. Both sought increased cooperation in intelligence sharing concerning the Middle East.
But unlike what the Arabs think, despite the value attached to the military cooperation with Israel, the Turkish military does not allow Israel to hold joint exercises with Ankara that will involve live-fire tests. It also doesn't agree to turn the trilateral (Turkey, US, Israel) navy exercises, code-named Reliant Mermaid, to extend its operations from the current search and rescue to war games, which was told to me by a retired navy officer who was among the team initiating the Turkish-Israeli military and defense industry cooperation in 1996 and 1997.
It is also worth mentioning that Turkey's powerful armed forces have been standing as an important driving force in boosting Turkish-Israeli military ties.
In the meantime, it is not expected that a pending meeting between the visiting Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt and Rep. Tom Lantos, head of the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs and a pro-Israel congressman, would make a serious contribution to prevent the Armenian genocide resolution from being passed by Congress some time in April, but it is for sure that Büyükanıt is expected to considerably ease concerns of the strong Jewish lobby that Turkish-Israeli military ties will continue as usual.
With the Republicans having lost control of Congress, Turkey has got a strong Jewish lobby in its hands that could play its card to stop the Armenian genocide resolution from being passed, although the Jewish lobby's involvement is reportedly inadequate to prevent the adoption of the resolution.
Meanwhile, we should also realize that Turkey as a Muslim nation has never been indifferent to the fellow Palestinians' grievances in the region. Thus, it would be wrong to assume that under the AK Party government, the future of Turkish-Israeli relations were questioned.
It was not only Erdoğan who branded, rightly or wrongly, Israeli actions against the Palestinians as a state terrorism, but also the late Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, back in 2002, who described the Israeli army's attacks against Palestinians as genocide.
But at the end of the day both Turkey and Israel, the only democratic nations in the Middle East, can help democracy flourish in the region if they join forces, regardless of ups and downs in their relations depending on the conjuncture.
