Interview by Gizem Yeldan, Selime Rida (JTW)

Q: How do you evaluate the Turkish-Israeli relations?

Sedat Laçiner: Turkey has always given great importance to its relations with Israel and being the first Muslim country to recognize Israel is one of the biggest indicators of this. Although there have been ups and downs in the relations from time to time, it is not something specific to the relations between Turkey and Israel. Israel is a tough country to establish good relations with and it is also located in a problematic geographical area.

When we look at the 2000’s, it is possible to say that Turkish-Israeli relations are quite well. Mutual cooperation has spilled over to the military level. In Turkey, the elections in 2002 caused a change in government. AKP, which has religious references, has come to power by receiving high votes and since then, Turkey has entered a difficult era. This inauguration worried some people when AKP staff’s past stance was taken into consideration. It made the people think that AKP’s special relations with Palestine and Arab World would harm the relations with Israel. Yet, we witnessed that those worries were not realistic at all. Strangely, both Erdoðan and Gül governments had special efforts to improve the relations with Israel and we saw these efforts at Galataport tender. Erdoðan government saw no harm in giving it to a well-known Israeli businessman Ofer.

At that time, the opposition party accused the government of being Zionist and “the Man of Israel”. The main opposition party, Republican People’s Party (CHP), was against this move and Baykal (the leader of the opposition party) made harsh statements. However, in spite of the burden it would bring about, the government advocated establishing good political and economic relations with Israel and has done its best to do so.

In his speech at USAK in 2005, Israeli Ambassador said that Turkish-Israeli relations are at its climax. When the volume of economic relations, investment and trade are taken into consideration they are all above 10 billion dollars. While Turkey has become the biggest economic partner of Israel in the Middle East, Israel has also become the economic partner of Turkey. Today, trade volume with Israel is more than that of many other Arab states.

Turkey gives importance not only to economic relations with Israel but political relations, as well. When Israeli President Perez came to Turkey, he made a speech at the Turkish Parliament. Making a speech at a country’s parliament shows that the state has a very privileged position for that country. What is more, as far as I know, the only Arab leader who made a speech at the Turkish Parliament is the Palestinian Head of State. Perez, during his official visit, spoke in praise of Turkey. I also remember the news of the New York Times concerning the speech of Perez stating, “Turkey, Israel’s closest Muslim ally...” The President, foreign affairs minister and other officials during that time are still the in the same positions today. Therefore, we see that there has been no change in leadership. In order to see a sudden change in the stances of two countries towards each other, it is expected that there be a change in political staff. However, there is not such a change in these two countries.

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Prime Minister Erdoðan had close relations during this time period, as well. The two leaders are more than friends. By utilizing this friendship, Erdoðan has also begun efforts to improve relations between Israel and Syria. These two resentful states have started to negotiate thanks to Turkey. All these examples show us that Israel trusted Turkey, as Turkey also trusted Israel until quite recently. Turkey saw Israel as a significant partner and expected Israel to take up more important tasks in Middle Eastern politics.


Q: What caused the deterioration of the relations between these two countries?

Sedat Laçiner: The good relations continued until the Gaza Operation. Israel started Operation Cast Lead without informing Turkey and at the most sensitive time in its relations with Syria. Yet at the time when he visited Turkey, Olmert knew that the operation would be executed. During his visit, Olmert said to Erdoðan that they were close to an agreement with Syria. Even worse, the starting of the operation immediately after his visit to Turkey, gave the impression that Turkey knew of the operation and approved of it. All in all, Turkey was deceived –or at least felt deceived- by one of its most confidential and serious partners in the Middle East. Concerning the issue, Erdoðan made the statement, “They deceived me”.

The Gaza Operation deeply affected the Turkish public opinion and government, and created a belief that Israel was an unreliable actor. Afterwards, there emerged mutual negative statements against each other. We also see weird statements made by Israeli officials’ relating to the chronic problems of Turkey, including the two leaders’ argument at Davos. And finally, there are the “low seat” and “Mavi Marmara” crisis. Meanwhile, an Israeli General has a also made unbelievable remarks against Turkey in respect to the Kurdish, Armenian and Cyprus issues.

Frankly speaking, it is obvious that there are no positive behaviors that will improve the relations. Both side’s emotional booms and mistakes have had negative effects to the process. All this can be said, but we cannot say that the relations have ideological problems. In contrast, there are pragmatic, conjectural and real problems. The main problems include Israel not acting as a reliable partner and the huge differences between Middle East perceptions of Turkey and Israel.

We see that there are serious dissimilarities between the Middle East countries, which Turkey wants to construct and Israel wants to construct or to live amongst. These problems are not insoluble, but the matter of finding a starting point to reverse the process, creating an atmosphere of dialogue, and establishing good relations constitutes a significant problem.


Q: Why can such a starting point not be found? What are the obstacles against it?

Sedat Laçiner: Such a starting point cannot be found because Turkey feels so humiliated by the Mavi Marmara incident. What is Mavi Marmara incident? Mavi Marmara is the massacre of Turkish citizens by the uniformed soldiers of another state for the first time after the First World War. That is, this attack could be more easily explained if it was held by a group or gangs from Israel. However, Israeli state had ordered this attack and Israeli commandoes massacred the Turkish citizens. Again this could have been understood if the Israeli side stated that this occurred accidentally. Yet, the Israeli side said, “This was not a mistake. We did it by our own will. We killed your citizens in open seas. If they come again, we will do it again.” This is an unacceptable situation for a serious state. Thus, in order to solve this issue, Turkey demands an apology and compensation for its trampled pride. This creates a vicious cycle. If the other side does not make a step, you do not make a step either.

When we evaluate the issue from Israel’s side, Israel does not retreat since it does not have the habit of taking a step back. Israel has done whatever it has wanted and no one has resisted against its actions. Secondly, there is no coalition acting rationally in Israel. Currently, there is the most divided coalition in the Israeli history, and within the coalition, there are people incompatible with diplomacy. Furthermore, an undiplomatic party leader has undertaken the position of Foreign Affairs Minister. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that Foreign Affairs Minister Lieberman did not represent Israel. How come a country’s Foreign Minister cannot represent his/her own country? This is unthinkable.

Since there is a divided coalition government in Israel, the people who do not want improved relations with Turkey can easily undermine the process. Whenever something good and useful wants to be done, the radical right groups in Israel prevent it from happening. What is more, some anti-Turkish American politicians have established allies with the Israeli lobbies and campaigns against Turkey. There are serious slanders against Turkey during these campaigns. The Israeli radical right believes that it can recover the relations and reverse the process by defaming Turkey to the West. This is a huge mistake. It is not possible to correct the relations with Turkey by making campaigns against it. In this respect, Israelis who care about the Turkish-Israeli relations should become a part of the process and play a constructivist role within it, because it is clear that both Israel and Turkey need each other.