Former Ambassador Avivi: "Turkish President fears Iran" • Senior Israeli minister, updated on details, cooled enthusiasm: "Turkey's support for Hamas is problematic"
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Photography:
IPI
New-old Middle East?
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made headlines after Friday prayers and not for the reasons that have characterized him so far, such as turning Aya Sophia into a mosque, but rather following the announcement that he is interested in a renewed upgrade of relations with Israel.
"Israel's policy regarding the Palestinians is unacceptable, but Turkey wants to improve its relations with Israel," said the Turkish president, adding that "our intelligence relations with Israel continue. We have difficulty managing relations with the high-ranking people. Relations were very different. "If there were no troubles with those of the highest order."
Photo: Reuters
Official Israel maintains silence and does not respond to Turkish reconciliation messages.
However, a senior minister updated on details told Israel Today that the Turkish case is fundamentally different from that of four Arab states that have signed peace with Israel, because of Turkey's support for Hamas.
"The fact that Hamas headquarters is located in Turkey is a very problematic matter. It makes the whole matter very difficult," the senior Israeli official said.
He estimated that as long as there was no change in the Turkish attitude towards Hamas, there would be no improvement in relations between the two countries.
"This is a positive statement without a doubt. We have not heard such a statement recently from the president," the political commentator of the T24 website and the "Shalom" newspaper, Carl Valencia, told "Israel Today".
"Since the spring, there have been rumors of normalization between Turkey and Israel. What is particularly striking are the interpretations in the Turkish media regarding possible normalization. Beyond that, the discussions themselves emphasize that this is a positive and necessary step. It is important."
Regarding the circumstances that led to the unusual statement, Valencia adds: "I think it is a product of Turkey's isolation in the eastern Mediterranean and in the whole region. Foreign policy has also caused significant problems with the US, the EU and NATO. Even when Turkey has the right reasons for threats and threats "Willingness - it has moved so many players so far away that no one wants to hear from Ankara or support them."
Israeli Embassy in Ankara / Photo: AFP
According to Valencia, this is one of several plans in Ankara.
"Turkey wants to improve relations with Israel, as with Egypt and Saudi Arabia," she concludes, "what is needed to realize the heating of relations between Israel is a political will, influenced by international and local motives, as well as building trust between the two countries."
One of the Israelis who knows the Turkish president best today is the ambassador to Ankara from 2007-2003 and the former deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry Pini Avivi. "I was not surprised by Erdogan's desire to have better relations with Israel, but by saying it out loud - "This has tremendous significance," he told Israel Today in the spring. "Not the security connection and the military exercises of his predecessors, but at least the whole economic issue that has grown from $ 1 billion to $ 5.5 billion."
Regarding Erdogan's treatment of the intelligence field, Avivi notes: "I do not know what is being done about intelligence today, but I can understand that the situation he is in in Syria affects him. He, like Israel, is very afraid of the Iranians - and in his case it is important to note "It is true that for 300 years there has been no war between Iran and Turkey, but there is competition between them."
"Normalization with Arab countries affected him"
The former ambassador to Turkey concludes that "Erdogan does not have one in his mouth and one in his heart - if he speaks, then he means what he says. Beyond that, I think the Arab countries that went in the direction of normalization with Israel influenced him, as did the US sanctions."
Pro-Palestinian demonstration in front of the Israeli consulate in Istanbul / Photo: AFP
Erdogan's extraordinary remarks came two and a half years after the Turkish Foreign Ministry expelled the then Israeli ambassador, Eitan Na'a, against the background of the clashes with Hamas in the "return marches" in May 2018. Today, Israel's senior echelons in Ankara and their Turkish counterparts in Tel Aviv are in charge of relations. of business).
The current senior Israeli diplomat in Ankara is Roi Gilad.
"For Israel, it is very important not only to return the ambassador to Ankara, but also to return the consul to Istanbul, which is not the capital, but is the capital of commerce - and today Turkey's economy is not in the sky," explains Dr. Chai Eitan Cohen Inrojek, a modern Turkish researcher at the institute. Jerusalem for Strategy and Security and the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.
The senior researcher adds that "if Erdogan wants to strengthen his position in power - he needs economic prosperity. In the balance of imports and exports, the Turks export more to the State of Israel. Therefore, the arrival of an Israeli consul in Istanbul will probably accelerate economic relations even further. "This world of trade will give a 'kosher certificate' to relations with Turkey. The absence of the ambassador in Ankara and the consul in Istanbul create a situation in which both Israeli and Turkish businessmen fear the development of business between the parties."
Erdogan's statement is a new record in the process of Ankara's rapprochement with Jerusalem.
Earlier this month, we published in Israel Today the proposal of Erdogan's associate, Admiral Jihat Yaiji, for a maritime border with Israel.
Beyond that, Erdogan's adviser on international relations, Prof. Mesut Jashin, declared last week that "full diplomatic relations may be restored by March. Why not?"
Jashin said these things to the VOA agency.