Is the direction of Turkey’s policy changing irreversibly, people asked in a number of international meetings in the past week here in İstanbul. The issue has adopted sort of an urgency –- it seemed –- when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reiterated his harsh critique of what he called inhumane treatment of the people of Gaza, in a newly inititiated İstanbul Forum, succesfully organized by AKP deputy Suat Kınıklıoğlu.In the same day, I heard cautious warnings by two keen observers of Ankara in Washington DC, Strobe Talbott and Martin Indyk, sharp liberal minds of Brookings, who were concerned of a prospective confrontation between Erdoğan and the key figures in the American capital. To Talbott, particularly, it looked as if, the rhetoric by Erdoğan had passed the critical line of diplomatic finesse.
May it be or not be that way, but the perceptions are not to be taken lightly. It is certain that the relations are utterly strained, and the state they are in is a clear indication that the role of Turkey as a mediator between Israel and Syria may very well be over.
If the two sides want to maintain a sustainable relationship built on trust and not deceit, there are serious tasks ahead. While Turkey, right in essence and premises of its critique of Israel, need to nuance its current policies, it is Israel which has to draw the real lessons and adopt to an entirely new thinking.
When I was discussing the issue with a friend who is a senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an expert on the Middle East in general, Henri Barkey, a point he made struck me. While calling for caution in not escalating it further more before his visit to Washington, Barkey said there was certainly something else Erdoğan could do, while being critical of Israel. He could certainly solidify his place at the side of the justice, he said, by firmly insisting to Hamas in Gaza that it release Gilat Shalit, held hostage there for over three years. This is an important point, if Turkey continues to play an active peacemaking role in the region.
Otherwise, Erdoğan and his government knows Turkey is not alone in being in the targeting line of Netanyahu government. In what looks like a reminder of Turkey in the old days, Israel is now fruitlessly engaged in issuing a protest here and expressing outrage there. France, China, Sweden and many others have had their share of the rage, and in that sense, it is rather unfair to think that Turkey is changing its policy radically and irreversibly vis a vis Israel. The views expressed by the hawks in Israeli politics ans pundits are sheer propaganda, only telling us about the fact that this important country is now dangerously stuck in old thinking, while the world is adopting a new line, in the face of new realities.
Unfortunately, we are to blame the total mental blockage of once the intelligent and reflective Israeli left which remains in denial before the Gaza disaster. This denial is very dangerous for those who seek a new order of peace in the region.
In an article yesterday, Gideon Levy eloquently warned that Israel’s goal has turned into a “nation alone”, that it is heading for isolation, falling to the status of international pariah.
With the confrontational Netanyahu line, Israel is exposed in its weakness of facing the present. While miscalculating the risks of alienating most nations in the world, it displays also a fundamental misjudgment in its approach to Turkey. So far, Israeli governments have preferred to deal with Turkey through the channels of the established elite, rather than the elected politicians. Days of elitism are over. While Israel is stuck with the old, worn-out methods to postpone and “rot” the Palestinian problem, emptying its remaining trust with the friends and allies, Turkey’s ruling party and key segments of the bureaucracy have been through a mental process of establishing an entire new, solution based view on the region.
The latest clash between our countries, after the cancellation of military exercises and Erdoğan’s remarks, expectedly misread and twisted by Netanyahu and his supporters, is a clear proof of clash between old and new languages. May it be an opportunity for our Israeli friends to sit down and think.
