Who would have thought that football would be a measure of the quality of international relations between countries? Yesterday (Monday), we were all shocked after the Israeli footballers, Sagiv Yehezkel and Eden Kartsev, were taken into custody and put on trial in Turkey for the gesture they made on behalf of our abductees in Gaza. In fact, their arrest has become a symbol of the deterioration of relations.
Footballer Sagiv Yehezkel is brought to trial in Turkey \\ from X
In contrast to the current period, in the early 2000s, the golden age of relations between Israel and Turkey, footballer Haim Revivo left his mark on bilateral relations by bringing the championship to Fenerbahce with his own hands. Thanks to Revivo, we got to see Israeli flags in the stands of football stadiums in Turkey. Today these seem like memories of glorious days from the last century.
The October 7th was also a turning point for Israeli foreign policy. The massacre left Israel with no choice but to declare all-out war on the Hamas terrorist organization. The scope of the war had a significant impact on Israel's relations with Muslim countries in the region: the loss of momentum in the arena of the Abraham Accords and a more severe negative trend vis-à-vis Turkey.
A pro-Palestinian demonstration outside Turkey's Hagia Sophia mosque, Photo: AP
In March 2022, Israel and Turkey announced full normalization of relations after President Herzog's historic visit to Ankara. During this period, which lasted until the outbreak of the war in Gaza, there were positive developments, including the appointment of ambassadors, bilateral visits, and humanitarian assistance to Turkey during last year's earthquake. Thus, a month before the war began, the positive atmosphere paved the way for the first political summit of its kind among heads of state on the sidelines of the UN. But the war in Gaza collapsed the fragile normalization of relations between the countries.
The balancing voices are silenced
Immediately after the outbreak of the war, all of Turkey chose to ignore the harsh images from the Gaza envelope. In other words, all the positive images from Israel's political summits and generous humanitarian aid have been completely forgotten. Since the beginning of the war, Israel has suffered only criticism, delegitimization and demonization from the Turks. The negative atmosphere against Israel reached an all-time low when Hamas propaganda gave false reports that Israel was allegedly attacking hospitals to kill innocent people. Thus, all strata of the Turkish population, without exception, united around hatred of Israel as a new social consensus.
Recently, in the spirit of football team sympathy, the Turkish media began to cover the war unilaterally, presenting Israel as a threat not only to Hamas, but also to Turkey and the entire region. Thus, anyone who makes any statement in favor of Israel, including Turkish journalists, is lynched by the media and society. The message is clear: Anyone who stands with Israel should be labeled a traitor. That is why the last balanced voices were silenced one by one in the Turkish media. The soccer affair proved not only how unwilling the Turkish public is to tolerate different opinions, but also showed the depth of anti-Israeli sentiment that has been sown in Turkey over the past decade.
Dr. Hai Eitan Cohen Yanarocak is an expert on Turkey at the Moshe Dayan MDC Center at Tel Aviv University and the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS)
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