Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel’s independence in 1949 and the two countries had been close allies with many shared regional interests.
By ANNA AHRONHEIMIran's proxies, including Hezbollah, are empowered throughout the Middle East (photo credit: REUTERS)
Ten years after relations between Israel and Turkey crashed and burned, the two former allies may once again be growing closer over shared concerns, including Hezbollah’s presence in Syria.Ankara broke off relations with Jerusalem following the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident in which 10 pro-Palestinian Turks were killed after they attacked Israeli commandos preventing a Turkish Gaza-bound ship from breaking a naval blockade on the Hamas-run coastal enclave.Six years later Turkey and Israel normalized ties and sent ambassadors to their respective capitals, but the ties once again cooled after the US moved its embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 and riots along the Gaza border fence broke out. Ankara withdrew its ambassador and expelled Israel’s ambassador.But, as is the norm in the Middle East, nothing remains the same for long. Two years later, both Turkey and Israel are facing a common enemy in Syria: Hezbollah.“The same Iranian proxy known as Hezbollah is challenging Turkey’s soldiers in Idlib, and it is challenging our soldiers in southern Syria. This is a common topic of interest, as well as energy,” a senior Israeli official was quoted as telling the Middle East Eye.The story was also picked up by TRT, an English-language mouthpiece for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which said there are signs of a thaw in relations between the two countries.Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel’s independence in 1949 and the two countries had been close allies with many shared regional interests.The two also cooperated in the defense industry, security cooperation, intelligence sharing and military training beginning in the 1960s and peaking in the 1990s with the 1994 Defense Cooperation Agreement and 1996 Military Training Cooperation Agreement.With those two agreements, the military-security ties became one of the closest in the Middle East, with Israel even providing intelligence to Turkey in its ongoing fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and Ankara cooperated with Israel on Iran by providing intelligence it had gathered.The two countries also used to participate in annual joint navy and air force drills but following the downgrading of ties Jerusalem turned instead to Turkey’s adversary, Greece, and the Greek Cypriots instead for military exercises of air, sea and ground forces.In addition, Turkey used to be one of Israel’s primary arms customers with Israeli firms upgrading Turkish M60 tanks at a cost of $650 million and F-4E planes for an estimated $1 billion as well as supplying Turkey with armed Heron drones for $200m., electronic reconnaissance and surveillance systems at $200m. and advanced missile systems and smart ammunition for $150m.But following the Mavi Marmara crisis, Ankara froze all defense industry projects and military cooperation with Jerusalem. Turkey also exerted efforts to isolate Jerusalem from military cooperation with NATO, of which Turkey is a key member. But following a short-lived reconciliation deal in 2016, Ankara withdrew its longstanding veto against Jerusalem being accepted as a partner nation to the organization (not as a member).That move also allowed the first meeting between senior military officials to occur between then-IDF deputy chief of staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan and his Turkish counterpart, Gen. Hulusi Akar, on the sidelines of a NATO conference for defense heads in Brussels.But as mentioned, the ties cooled in 2018, with Erdogan calling Israel a “terror state” for its handling of the Great March of Return protests and the moving of the US Embassy to Jerusalem.Two years later, Erdogan continues to be one of the most vocal critics of Israel and has blasted Jerusalem on its plans to annex the West Bank, vowing that Turkey will support Palestinians against the plan.The complicated and often toxic relationship between the two countries is like a seesaw, with ties peaking before they plummet back to earth. And with Erdogan at the helm of the Turkish seesaw and Netanyahu on the Israeli side, what is said in public will never be the whole story.It is possible that the two militaries, which both see an opportunity to destroy a common enemy, will work behind the scenes to learn from each other the weaknesses of Hezbollah.
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