TV SHOW DEEPENS SPLIT BETWEEN ISRAEL AND TURKEY
By Nicholas Birch, Charles Levinson And Marc Champion
Wall Street Journal
October 17, 2009
A war of words ignited by a new Turkish TV series depicting Israeli
military atrocities escalated Friday, shaking what is probably Israel’s
strongest partnership in the Middle East.
The first episode of the series, "Separation," aired Wednesday on the
public channel TRT, showed what appeared to be an Israeli soldier
gunning down an unarmed Palestinian girl in a cul de sac. Shortly
afterward, another soldier shoots a newborn baby.
The images sparked outrage in Israel. Labor unions said they would
boycott Turkey as a vacation destination, and Israel summoned
Turkey’s ambassador Thursday to lodge a protest. Israeli Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a statement Thursday the series
"would not be appropriate in an enemy country and certainly not in
a state which maintains diplomatic relations with Israel."
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu responded Friday by
criticizing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. He said a recent
decision to exclude Israel from planned North Atlantic Treaty
Organization exercises in central Turkey was made in response to
public outrage in Turkey over Israel’s treatment of Palestinian
civilians in the Gaza Strip.
"While the tragedy in Gaza continues, nobody should expect us to put
on military displays of this sort," Mr. Davutoglu said.
As for the TV series, Mr. Davutoglu said: "Turkey is not a country
based on censorship."
Officials and analysts in both countries said the split reveals Ankara
no longer needs or wants Israel the way it once did.
The two countries have long had strong diplomatic and trade relations,
and Turkey has been a substantial buyer of Israeli military hardware.
For years, Israeli pilots trained in Turkish airspace. As recently
as August, Turkey took part in joint naval exercises with Israel.
But the ties were built in a period when Turkey felt hemmed in on all
sides, analysts say. In the 1980s and 1990s, Turkey had poor relations
with Iraq and shared with Israel a deep suspicion of Iran. It was
also fighting a guerrilla war with Kurdish militants. In 1998, it came
close to war with Syria. Turkey was also in conflict with Greece over
Cyprus, while then communist Bulgaria and Armenia were historical
and Cold War rivals. Ankara needed Israel’s military hardware and
intelligence sharing.
"In the 1990s, Turkish foreign policy was guided by security issues,
and that pushed Turkey closer to Israel," says Kadri Gursel, a
columnist for the centrist daily Milliyet.
But under Mr. Davutoglu and his boss, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, Turkey has worked hard to fix those problems and reintegrate
into the region. This month, Turkey signed significant agreements
with Armenia, Syria and Iraq.
"There is no need for this [partnership with Israel] anymore," said
Huseyin Bagci, professor of International Relations at the Middle
East Technical University in Ankara.
Mr. Bagci predicts that Turkey increasingly will look to Italy,
France and other suppliers to buy arms, rather than Israel.
The breakdown in relations also appears personal. Mr. Erdogan walked
off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January after
clashing with President Shimon Peres of Israel over the conflict in
Gaza. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Erdogan
was still simmering.
"If you look at Gaza, 1,500 people died, 5,000 people were wounded,
infrastructure, the superstructures were all demolished. … What
happened afterwards? There was nothing," said Mr. Erdogan.
Israel and some Turkish analysts see an ideological component to
the dispute, noting the Islamist roots of the ruling Justice and
Development Party. "We’ve seen Turkey evolve and change since Erdogan’s
Islamic party took power," the senior Israeli official said.
Mr. Erdogan, in the interview, insisted his position wasn’t driven by
identification with Muslim Palestinians, but by the need for honesty
and fairness.
Turkish officials insist the relationship is far from dead. "Let’s
make no mistake. We value a continuation of relations with Israel,
but not at any cost," said ruling-party official Suat Kiniklioglu.
Write to Charles Levinson at [email protected] and Marc Champion