Israel seeks to contain tensions with Turkey

Ayalon, speaking in the Knesset at a session on relations with Ankara on Wednesday, was apparently referring to tensions between Turkey and Israel following the exclusion of Israel from an international military exercise in Turkey and a television series broadcast on state television station TRT, protested by Israel as “state-sponsored incitement.”

“We don't like everything we hear, but we shouldn't shoot from the hip and become afraid of everything. We have the channels that we're using even now to deal with our problems. It's important to maintain stability in the region, and Turkey is a partner for that and future peace moves,” Ayalon was quoted as saying by The Jerusalem Post.

Relations with Ankara are important to Israel because Turkey is not only a NATO member but also an “antithesis to Iran: a tolerant Muslim democracy with a Constitution, unlike Iran,” Ayalon also said. The deputy foreign minister, nonetheless, said he thought it had been a “serious mistake” for the previous Ehud Olmert government to ask Ankara to mediate peace talks between Jerusalem and Damascus.

The Jerusalem Post cited Israeli diplomatic officials as saying that “several years ago, Turkish state TV had broadcast a show portraying Russian soldiers perpetrating atrocities on Muslims in Chechnya but that Russia had not made as much of a diplomatic noise about that show as Israel had about the recent Turkish TV series.” Israeli media, meanwhile, also reported the arrival of Turkey's new ambassador to Israel, Oğuz Çelikkol, replacing Namık Tan, who has recently been posted to Ankara as a deputy undersecretary at the Foreign Ministry. Çelikkol, who arrived in Israel on Tuesday, will present his credentials to Israeli President Shimon Peres within the next few weeks, reports said.

“Çelikkol's arrival, amid tensions in the Turkish-Israeli relationship, is viewed by some Israeli officials as an indication that Turkey does not ‘want to push the envelope too far.' The situation could have been exacerbated by delaying sending a new ambassador,” IsraelNN.com commented.