Is Turkey turning?

Turkey is rethinking its place in the world

AT THE end of December 2008 Israel unleashed “Operation Cast Lead”, its bombing campaign against Gaza. Its aim was to counter rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas, which controls Gaza. Three weeks later some 1,400 Palestinians had died. “I personally warned Ehud Barak [Israel’s defence minister] that we would react very seriously if Israel did anything in Gaza,” recalls Ali Babacan, then Turkish foreign minister and now deputy prime minister.

The Gaza war proved to be a turning point in Turkey’s relations with Israel. A day before Israel attacked, Turkish intermediaries felt they were on the verge of clinching a peace deal between Israel and Syria. “The Israelis misled us,” fumes a Turkish diplomat. Turkey’s fury became public soon afterwards, when Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, stormed off a panel he was sharing with the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, at the Davos World Economic Forum. “You Israelis know how to kill,” he shouted.

Source: https://www.economist.com/europe/2010/06/10/is-turkey-turning?story_id=16333417