Turkish Double Position on the Palestinian Issue

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Every time Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan comes out with fiery statements and resounding slogans against the backdrop of the aggression on Gaza and the West Bank areas, and the violations against the Palestinian people, his relations with Israel are not affected, and the volume of trade exchange between the two countries does not change, which confirms the falsehood of the claims of the Justice and Development Party regime and the use of Palestine to save the party’s collapsed popularity.

“Regardless of the differences and political tensions between the two parties, trade between Turkey and Israel continues, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute;” Trade between the two countries now stands at $6.5 billion, compared to $1.4 billion when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party  came to power, according to the Mizubotamia news agency.

In 2020, Israel ranked 3 among the importers of Turkish goods and services, with imports reaching $4.7 billion that year, a jump from 2019 when Israel ranked 9 in the list of consumers of Turkish exports, according to the agency

In his speech at the 2020 Foreign Trade Assessment Meeting, former Trade Minister Rohsar Peckgan noted that in 2020 there were 44 countries with which Turkey broke a record in exports, led by the United States, Israel and South Korea.

Turkish food exports to Israel have increased over the past year, and in the first 9 months of 2020, sales of dried fruit increased by 64%, seafood by more than 36%, grain and legumes by 18%, compared to the same period in 2019, and exports of fruits and vegetables increased by more than 25%, according to Turkish news site Ahval.

Despite Erdoğan’s stinging reaction to events in Israel, trade grew steadily, for example, in 2017, when the United States moved its embassy to Jerusalem, Erdoğan declared Jerusalem a red line, and the Turkish president hosted the Islamic Cooperation Organization in Istanbul in May 2018. To work for Palestinians killed by Israeli bandits today means to show the whole world that humanity has not yet been done, but during that year, Turkey’s foreign trade with Israel was close to the second record of $5.6 billion.

Referring to the commercial relations between the two countries, the Jerusalem Post reported that the tense diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey did not affect the volume of trade exchange between the two countries after the rise last year, which reached more than $6 billion, pointing out that Turkish-Israeli trade is growing as diplomatic relations reach a very low level; Turkish food and drink exports to Israel have risen so far in 2020, despite the epidemic.

Though Erdoğan continues to use his emotional and populist rhetoric on Palestine and Islam, this does not prevent strong economic ties with the occupying power, and Turk Press points to this relationship through a report including Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz’s remarks.

According to the report published on February 27, 2016, the minister says : Trade relations between the two countries were not affected in spite of some diplomatic differences in 2008 and 2013. In 2009, the volume of trade exchange between the two countries amounted to $2,597,163,000. In spite of the diplomatic deterioration of bilateral relations, the volume of trade exchange in 2014 amounted to $5,832.112 billion $80,000.

The Minister had said in the same report : Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated that, as the political situation in the region deteriorates, Turkey urgently needs to reach agreement with Israel, to discuss ways in which positive changes can be made in the region.

Hafrat newspaper raised a pressing question that Erdoğan always faces about what Turkey has given Palestine and its people over all these years of slogans, denunciations and loud voice?”, noting that Erdoğan’s answers are always diplomatic, full of slogans, far away from the reality he would not be able to say, but the reality speaks volumes, and Ankara’s contradictions always reveal that all this noise is aimed at trading the Palestinians pain and winning false popularity for Erdoğan, especially at the Arab and Islamic levels.”

The newspaper described the stages of Turkey’s relationship with Israel, which officially began in March 1949. Turkey became the first Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel as a national homeland for Jews at the expense of Palestinians. This relationship was not affected at all with the arrival of the Justice and Development Party in power in the country in 2002. On the contrary, the party worked with its government to strengthen all previous agreements with Israel and expand its areas to other sectors. Erdoğan and his government succeeded in transferring cooperation between the two countries to an unprecedented strategic stage.

Perhaps the most notable synergies between Turkey and Israel were in the military sphere; In January 1994, then Israeli President Ezra Weizman, during his announced visit to the Turkish capital Ankara, took more than 20 senior officials, many of them working in the military industries. Turkey is the second country after the United States to host the largest arms factories for the Israeli army. Military cooperation with Tel Aviv has increased since the Turkish occupation of the northern Cyprus island in 1978, which led to American and European sanctions on its military sector. Ankara relied on the Israeli side in modernizing the army.

The big leap in the military field was made in 1996 under the government of Necmettin Erbakan, the spiritual and actual father of the Islamic political experience, when Tel Aviv and Ankara concluded two military agreements, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, making it the first agreement between the Jewish state and a predominantly Muslim country.

After 26 years of declared and undeclared military cooperation between the two states, Turkey is trying to show itself through its propaganda machine that it is a state that takes a stand against Israel and supports the Palestinian cause, while the facts prove that the Erdoğan administration is playing a double game aimed at gaining popular support through propaganda positions, without affecting the real ongoing relations with Israel, especially at the military level.

Israel is the largest open trade market for Turkish products, according to Turkish officials.

Turkish Airlines operates more than 10 flights between Ankara and Tel Aviv daily, in addition to cargo flights.

Air traffic reports indicate that Turkish Airlines is Israel’s second-largest carrier, after Israel’s EL Al, and even when relations between the two countries apparently soured, this close link was not severed.

Turkey’s support for the Palestinian cause is limited to pumping huge funds into the media to run organized propaganda campaigns that place Turkey at the center of those who support the Palestinian cause. The report of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA) exposed the falsity of these allegations and confirmed that Turkey was not among the countries that provided assistance to the Palestinians over the past years, while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates topped the list of supporters.

This relationship between Ankara and Tel Aviv was not limited to the previous areas, but also covered the health aspects, especially with the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. In April 2020, Bloomberg, the US agency, unveiled a shipment of medical aid from Ankara to Israel.

The agency quoted an unnamed Turkish official as saying that the government has approved a shipment of medical equipment including face masks, protective suits and sterile gloves to Israel, adding that 3 planes from Israel are expected to land at Incirlik Air Base to receive the shipment!

Turkish-Israeli relations developed after the Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002, but soured after the 2008 Gaza war, with the two sides exchanging harsh statements.

These relations became even more tense following the Israeli navy’s interception of the Mavi Marmara in May 2010 and the killing of 10 Turkish activists during an Israeli commando raid to control it. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later apologized, in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, pledging to pay compensation to the families of the victims of the Turkish ship.