Secular Turkey’s interest in Al Aqsa mosque

As it will be remembered, Israel allowed the Turkish visit to the dig in an attempt to calm fears that the Israeli excavation work, part of repairs to a walkway damaged in a 2004 snowstorm, would harm the nearby compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Wednesday’s visit was agreed upon last month when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Turkey, where he accepted a Turkish visiting the site in an effort to ease Muslim suspicions.

For many, both in the West and in the Muslim world, the Turkish government’s keen interest was a striking development. Clearly it is seen as a departure from classic Turkish foreign policy, which usually tried to put a distance between itself and developments in the Middle East. As opposed to that tradition, in many cases today Turkey has been taking initiatives on sensitive issues even far ahead of Arab states themselves.

The change was a novelty because for years people in the West have thought that Turkey, as a secular and Western-oriented country, would have little interest in the Middle East. Besides, Turkey saw its own historical legacy toward the region more as a burden than as an opportunity, while the region opted to evaluate its Turkish past as part of colonial history or as the main reason of their backwardness.

In the eyes of Arab Muslims, even Turkey’s Muslim identity was a matter of question after abolishing the Caliphate and making radical reforms in the name of Westernization.

Now, the country, which was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel, was sending a delegation to Al Aqsa in order to verify if Israel was doing anything wrong to the Muslim holy site.

The reality concerning Turkey’s relationship with the Middle East is partly different from how it is perceived in the world. A visionary Turkish foreign policy expert summarized for me almost 100 years of relations between Turkey and the Middle East in a few very short sentences: We withdrew from the region in 1917. Until the Cold War, Turkey tried to be closer to the region as a part of Ataturk’s priority. But at that time France and Britain were two main obstacles, since they were effective in the region in one way or another. Unfortunately, the Cold War left two sides in the opposite camps. Now it is first time that international conjuncture is positive and both sides have great willingness to develop relations.

Taking just last week’s events into consideration demonstrates that there is promising potential for relations: Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan was in Jeddah for the Middle East Economic Forum. The Egyptian president was in Ankara last week. In the last two months Turkish and Egyptian foreign ministers met five times. For the first time a Turkish foreign minister spoke in the Arab League meeting as an honorary guest.     

As the Turkish technical team was in Jerusalem last week the Abant Platform, a Turkish civil society initiative, brought Turkish and Arab intellectuals together.

As a result, Turkey’s interest in Al Aqsa should not be seen as a distinct or exceptional move but as part of developing relations. A promising aspect of these relations is the positive attitude toward Turkey from both Arabs and Israelis. Olmert’s acceptance of the Turkish delegation itself is enough to demonstrate the trust toward Turkey from Israel, though in this particular situation it will be very difficult job for Ankara to pay back that trust. There will be a cost in each case whether the result of the inspection is in favor or against the Israeli position.