[Jpost] After the founding of Israel, Turkey became the first Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel. Israel and Turkey had good relations until the rise of the AKP party in the early 2000s.
| The Justice and Development Party has ruled Turkey since 2002. Neo-Ottomanism is their dream, which in practice means they are closer to the gradualists of the Muslim Brotherhood, including Hamas, are fine with capitalism, however crony it might be, and used to partner with the Gulenists until they’d acquired enough control to play Bolshevik to the Gulenist Mensheviks, at which point the Gulenists suddenly found themselves rounded up and all their considerable worldly goods around the world confiscated. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 72, was their prime minister 2003-2014, then president of Turkey thereafter, a role which he changed from ceremonial head of state to actual head of government, replacing the parliamentary style prime minister who’d run things since Ataturk designed the post-Ottoman system. They should reach democracy’s final trolly stop soon, and get off… |
Rhetoric against Turkey and Syria continues to be a consistent theme in Israeli politics. In fact, Turkey is beginning to notice, and is increasingly reporting on Israeli comments.
| Then-prime minister Erdogan loved Israel even more than Turkey had done before him, even visiting the country in 2005, then suddenly at the 2009 World Economic Forum he turned viciously on his friend, Israeli president Shimon Peres, interrupting a moderator in front of all to snarl some nonsense at Peres about being a child murderer, followed by sponsoring the first Gaza Flotilla the next year in support of Hamas. The Israelis tried for some years to regain the old relationship, but they’ve clearly given up. |
Turkish media reported this week that Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, met with Khalil al-Hayya, the newly elected leader of Hamas. Israel will paint this in a negative light, given that some see Turkey as a rising threat.
| Interesting phrasing, O Jerusalem Post, given that President Erdogan believes Turkey deserves to conquer Jerusalem and return the uppity Jews of Israel to their proper and historic dhimmi status. |
First, a little history. Turkey and Israel have historic ties that date back to the era before the State of Israel was created. In 1913, Zionist leaders David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi studied law in Istanbul. Decades later, Turkey became the first Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel after its founding.
Israel and Turkey had good relations until the rise of the AKP party in the early 2000s. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan became increasingly critical of Israel, especially after the 2009 war in Gaza. His rhetoric was met with some attempts at reconciliation, most recently in 2021. However, the October 7 massacre and subsequent war in Gaza have soured relations, bringing them to a new low.
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