Eyes on Barak visit to Turkey after envoy spat in Israel-Turkey ties

“The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. The receiving State shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity,” says Article 29 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. In 422 B.C. Sophocles expressed the idea that led to the phrase “Don’t shoot the messenger.” Shakespeare also touched on this in “Henry IV, Part II” (1597-98) and in “Antony and Cleopatra” (1606-07), while the Turkish idiom “elçiye zeval olmaz” can be translated as “the envoy should not be harmed.”

Turkish Ambassador to Israel Oğuz Çelikkol, who has had a 35-year diplomatic career with senior posts in Iraq, Syria and Greece, has already been “harmed” by the Israeli deputy foreign minister’s unprecedented diplomatic rudeness televised earlier this week, and additional damage has been done to the already strained relationship between Turkey and Israel, although the former received a desired and satisfactory official apology for the incident later in the week.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is scheduled to arrive in the Turkish capital this morning for a one-day official visit in an atmosphere poisoned by the latest diplomatic spat. While in Ankara, Barak, who will be accompanied by more than 15 members of the Israeli media, will have talks with both his Turkish counterpart, Vecdi Gönül, and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

On Monday, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, summoned Çelikkol to complain about a Turkish television drama that portrayed Israeli diplomats as the masterminds of a child abduction ring. Ayalon invited media crews to cover the start of the meeting in Jerusalem -- the subject of which was not conveyed to Çelikkol beforehand, with the ambassador assuming that it would be a courtesy visit for which he had made a request earlier -- and pointed out that there was no Turkish flag on the table. He also said he was deliberately avoiding shaking hands with the ambassador. In television images broadcast in Turkey, Çelikkol was seen seated on a low couch, accentuating the sense of a slight. Ayalon later conceded that his behavior toward the envoy was inappropriate.

But Turkish President Abdullah Gül said on Wednesday afternoon that Ayalon’s admission was insufficient and demanded a full apology, noting that Israel had until midnight to rectify the unprecedented example of diplomatic rudeness to the Turkish ambassador.

On Wednesday night, the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced that Israel had sent a formal letter of apology to Çelikkol.

“I had no intention to humiliate you personally and apologize for the way the demarche was handled and perceived,” Ayalon said in the letter. “Please convey this to the Turkish people for whom we have great respect. I hope that both Israel and Turkey will seek diplomatic and courteous channels to convey messages as two allies should.”

Barak is expected to convey positive messages concerning the future of bilateral relations during talks with Turkish officials. Yet it is likely that the coalition partner Labor Party leader’s call will fall on deaf ears with regards to his coalition partners, -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the leader of the hawkish Likud Party, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is the leader of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu and the architect of the diplomatic scandal carried out by Ayalon.

The delay in issuing a letter of apology to the Turkish ambassador stemmed from concerns that it might result in a coalition crisis with Lieberman, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported earlier this week, citing senior sources in Netanyahu’s office.

The fact that Barak will be accompanied by a large media contingent is interpreted as a sign of Barak’s willingness to convey his messages concerning the significance of the relationship with Turkey to the Israeli people and the coalition partners as fast as possible and in a straightforward and clear manner.

Whether Barak’s messages will be echoed in Jerusalem is still a subject of curiosity, as the main obstacle to healing the relationship has not changed -- with Ankara believing that Israel’s deadly three-week offensive in Gaza that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and damaged or destroyed over 50,000 homes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with the declared goal of “self-defense” actually killed the peace process.

The revival of the peace process requires a strong will on the Israeli side, and even if Barak’s presence in Ankara provides nice photo opportunities, there seems to be a long way ahead for the emergence of such a strong will.

Özlem Tür, an assistant professor at Ankara’s Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) and an expert on Middle Eastern affairs, believes that Israel had assumed that Turkey’s criticism of its actions were aimed at gaining popularity in Arab countries and increasing domestic public support.

“But now they comprehend that Turkey’s policies have been dominated by a sense of upholding justice in the region,” Tür told Sunday’s Zaman. When asked why Israel dared isolate itself to this extent by insisting on its policies, Tür said, “They will feel sorry about not having Turkey as an ally, but at the end of the day they will perceive their isolation as an existential challenge which they can still survive.”