Turkey Suspends Defense Trade With Israel

Erdogan Says More Penalties Coming, As U.S. Seeks to ‘De-Escalate’ Crisis

Agence France-Presse / Getty Images

F-4 Phantom jet (Israeli-flagged version)

ISTANBUL—Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that his country was suspending defense trade with Israel and that Turkish naval vessels would be seen in the eastern Mediterranean more often, as Ankara ratcheted up pressure in a rising dispute with its former ally.

Speaking to reporters in Ankara after giving a speech at the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Erdogan said the suspension of military agreements with Israel, which Turkey had previously announced, would include trade in defense goods.

“Trade relations, military relations, defense industry—these we will suspend. These will be completely frozen and that process will be followed also by very different sanctions,” he said.

He said the measures still to come would be a “Plan C” to the “Plan B” already announced.

Turkey said Friday it was downgrading diplomatic relations with the Jewish state in response to Israel’s continued refusal to apologize for the killing by Israeli commandos of eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American on board the Mavi Marmara aid ship, as it sought to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip in May last year.

As the rift deepens between Israel and Turkey, two of the U.S.’ most important Middle East allies, the Obama administration said Tuesday it was moving to “defuse” the crisis.

“We are concerned about the state of the relationship,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Tuesday. “We have over many months tried to work with our ally Turkey and our ally Israel to strengthen and improve their bilateral relationship. We still believe that getting back to a good partnership between them is in each of their interests, and we will continue to work for that goal with both of them.”

Turkey has announced no general trade sanctions against Israel. A spokesman for Mr. Erdogan said the prime minister had been referring in his remarks Tuesday only to trade in defense goods, and not to trade in general. On Monday, Turkey’s economy minister had said there would be no broader trade sanctions “for now.”

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment Tuesday. Other Israeli officials contacted said privately that they don’t wish to engage Mr. Erdogan in a public debate so as not to be seen as further aggravating political ties.

Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. who works with the Israeli government, called Mr. Erdogan’s comments part of Turkey’s “childish” reaction to the United Nations report released last week that stated the Gaza blockade was justified but that Israel’s use of force was “excessive and unreasonable.”

Turkey and Israel had nearly $3.5 billion in overall trade in 2010, according to official Turkish figures, a record reached during a sharp downturn in the political relationship. Moreover, trade rose more than 25% in the first half of this year, compared with the same period last year, Israeli and Turkish figures show.

Separate data for defense-related trade weren’t available. Past major deals, however, included an agreement worth an estimated $600 million to $700 million under which Israel modernized Turkey’s aging Phantom F-4 jets, and a $668 million pact to upgrade its M-60 tanks.

Last year, Turkey took delivery of 10 Israeli-built Heron unmanned aerial vehicles, a $183 million deal.

Officials and analysts say those contracts are complete and no new large agreements have been signed for several years as political relations soured. Now the main potential loss is the purchase of spare parts from Israel, should Turkey strictly enforce its own embargo. Turkey’s defense exports to Israel tend to be lower-end equipment such as uniforms, analysts said.

A report released last month by Tepav, an Ankara-based think tank, said past Turkish threats to cut off trade with Israel haven’t hit trade as a whole, which has seen a healthy expansion. Most of the business is in the private sector and the two economies complement each other, the report said. Turkey is strong in construction, chemicals and textiles, while Israel offers software and other technology products from industries that are weak elsewhere in the region.

“Business has become an area immune from political upheavals,” the report said. “The threats of canceling large infrastructure projects and other joint ventures have not gone beyond words. As a matter of fact, most of the projects involve private companies. Furthermore, boycotting of member nations is against OECD rules.”

Turkey and Israel are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Responding to a question about reports that Turkey would begin patrolling waters off Israel and whether that risked conflict, Prime Minister Erdogan said Turkey had a right to do so. “The eastern Mediterranean is not a foreign place to us,” he said. “Of course, our vessels will be seen from now on very often in these waters.”

He also confirmed he would be traveling to Egypt soon, and said he “might” visit Gaza. A spokesman for Mr. Erdogan said the visit to Cairo would take place between Sept. 12 and 14.

—Joshua Mitnik in Tel Aviv contributed to this aritcle.

Write to Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com

By ETHAN BRONNER and SEBNEM ARSU

Published: September 5, 2011

JERUSALEM — Tensions between Israel and Turkey mounted further on Monday, as Turkish officials ordered senior Israeli diplomats to leave the country by midweek and Israeli passengers arriving at the Istanbul airport were taken aside and questioned for 90 minutes by officials. Turkish officials said that Turkish tourists were treated the same way at the Tel Aviv airport last week.

Times Topic: Gaza Strip

The fraying relationship — once Israel’s strongest with a Muslim country, with hundreds of thousands of visitors traveling in each direction — unwound further last week when Israel said it would not apologize for the deaths of nine Turks and an American of Turkish origin last year on a flotilla seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.

A United Nations report on the event called Israel’s sea blockade a legal and legitimate means of stopping arms from reaching militant Palestinian groups in Gaza, and said Israeli commandos were attacked when they boarded a ship in the flotilla. But the report said the Israeli forces reacted to the attack in a way that was both excessive and unreasonable. Efforts to negotiate an Israeli apology and compensation for the victims failed, and Turkey announced a series of tough measures against Israel, including a freeze on military contracts and the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and his deputy.

Turkey has also threatened to seek international legal measures against Israel’s Gaza blockade and use its navy in the eastern Mediterranean to protect its actions there.

“As a littoral state which has the longest coastline in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey will take whatever measures it deems necessary in order to ensure the freedom of navigation in the eastern Mediterranean,” the foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said in Ankara.

Ministry officials declined to give specifics. Turkish news reports suggested that the measures might include naval escorts for any aid boats or flotillas destined for Gaza in the future.

Alon Liel, a former Israeli ambassador to Turkey, said in an interview that Turkey might be thinking of interfering with future Israeli gas exports to Cyprus by placing its navy in between. He said that Israel exports about $2 billion in goods a year to Turkey, and that about half of that was oil and chemical products.

Mr. Liel, who is no longer in government, was critical of Israel’s actions in this affair, saying relations with Turkey could have been saved. He now worries that Egypt and Jordan will come under domestic pressure to expel Israeli ambassadors, especially as uprisings have spread.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey is planning to visit Egypt next week and has raised the possibility of going from there to Gaza, which would be a direct challenge to Israel. But most analysts predicted that he would drop the idea of visiting Gaza, which is controlled by the militant group Hamas, to avoid alienating Turkey’s American and other Western allies.

Some in the Israeli government urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to offer the apology to salvage relations with Turkey. But he and most of those around him believe that Turkey is uninterested in such a move. Many analysts in both countries said the relationship would not improve soon.

“No matter what anyone says about the continuation of their historical alliance, the relationship crossed the Rubicon — the red line,” said Cengiz Candar, a Turkish journalist and analyst. “Turkey now claims the leadership of the Arab world that Egypt once held, and therefore it is in competition with Iran. It is in a standoff with Israel in a display of power.”

Ethan Bronner reported from Jerusalem, and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul.

via Diplomatic Strains Grow Between Turkey and Israel – NYTimes.com.

Dead in the Water

I plan to post a bit more about the complete and troubling breakdown of Turkey-Israel relations, but for now I’m posting a bit from an article I recently wrote about the subject for Foreign Policy’s website. From the article:

The world owes a debt of thanks to that anonymous diplomat who leaked the long-delayed U.N. report on the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident — the ill-fated Israeli commando raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla that resulted in the deaths of nine Turks — to the New York Times, thus single-handedly ending months of endless speculation and finally putting the floundering Turkey-Israel relationship out of its misery.

The report was issued by a panel headed by Geoffrey Palmer, the former prime minister of New Zealand, who was aided by Álvaro Uribe, the former president of Colombia, along with one Turkish and one Israeli representative. While concluding that Israel’s military takeover of the Mavi Marmara was “excessive and unreasonable,” the report also decided that Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza was legal and based on legitimate security concerns.

With the report’s leak and Israel’s continuing refusal to meet Turkey’s demand for an apology, Ankara deployed its long-threatened “Plan B” on Friday, Sept. 2 — expelling the Israeli ambassador and downgrading diplomatic relations, suspending military agreements, and promising to help the families of flotilla victims pursue Israel in international courts. In a Friday news conference, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned, somewhat ominously, that Turkey would “take whatever measures it deems necessary in order to ensure the freedom of navigation in the Eastern Mediterranean.”

Turkey’s moves against Israel cap off what has been a steady deterioration between the two former allies — one that started not with the Mavi Marmara affair but with Israel’s attack on Gaza, which began in December 2008. The most recent steps taken by Ankara are therefore not a blip in Turkey-Israel relations, but represent what is likely to be a long-term freeze, one that could very well lead to further problems between the two countries in the near future.

At the heart of Friday’s breakdown of Turkey-Israel relations — and what makes any rapprochement between the two countries extremely unlikely at present — is an increasingly divergent view of the Middle East and each country’s role in the region. For Turkey, Israel’s continuing occupation of the Palestinian territories (particularly Gaza) stand as the primary roadblock toward creating the kind of more harmonious regional order that Ankara envisions. For Israel, Turkey’s outreach to Hamas in Gaza, President Bashar al-Assad in Syria (at least before his recent crackdown), and the Iranian regime are all proof that the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) government is quickly on its way to joining the regional “axis of resistance” against it.

The U.N. report on the Gaza-bound flotilla incident is just the latest example of how Turkey and Israel now fail to see eye to eye on the region’s most important questions. While Israel holds that it is enforcing a legal naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, Turkey sees a country that treats the Mediterranean as “a lake of its own,” as the Turkish ambassador to Washington tweeted on Friday. Where Turkey sees the Mavi Marmara as a ship rushing desperately needed aid to Gaza, Israel sees a craft filled with violent Hamas supporters.

The response to the report continued along these lines. “The report is a professional, serious, and extensive document,” a senior source in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told the Israeli media. Turkish President Abdullah Gul, on the other hand, declared, “That report is actually null and void for Turkey.”

The full article can be found here. Lots of previous posts tracking the failing of the Turkey-Israel relationship can be found here.

via Istanbul Calling: Dead in the Water.

Turkey and Israel are set for a diplomatic showdown with the scheduled publication of a United Nations report this Friday into the killing last year by Israeli security forces of nine Turkish citizens on a boat attempting to break Israel’s economic blockade of the Gaza Strip. The release of the U.N. report has been repeatedly delayed to give time to diplomatic efforts to reconcile the two formerly close allies.

Since last year’s killing of nine Turkish citizens by Israeli forces, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Israel to apologize and compensate the families of those killed. Equally resolute, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there is nothing to apologize for. The impasse has severely damaged bilateral relations of the formerly close allies. But Erdogan has warned things could get a lot worse.

He says unless Israel offers an apology, pays compensation, and removes the embargo against the Gaza Strip, it is not possible for Turkey-Israel relations to improve. Erdogan says that from now on, Turkey as well as the families will take some steps, so a new phase will be beginning.

The expected publication this Friday of the U.N. report into the killings is the deadline set by Ankara for its demands to be met. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu earlier this month said that both Washington and Jerusalem are aware of the sanctions Turkey is prepared to impose against Israel. International relations expert Soli Ozel says Ankara has options.

“Turkey can lower the level of its relations in Israel, pushing for the recognition of Palestinian statehood,” said Ozel. “It can try to sue [the] Israeli military and politicians in international courts. Whether they can pull this off or not, I don’t know, which is why I think the Americans are so adamant that things don’t get out of hand.”

According to both Turkish and Israeli media reports, a proposal by the U.S. for what is described as a softened Israeli apology in exchange for normalizing relations has so far been rejected by Jerusalem. Diplomatic columnist Semih Idiz says such an intervention is an indication that Washington is aware of Turkey’s growing importance in the increasingly volatile Middle East. That importance, Idiz claims, is a key factor behind Ankara maintaining its tough stance towards Jerusalem.

“We are dealing with a very different kind of environment now in the Middle East,” said Idiz. “Turkey has a greater presence, if not with some regimes, at least with the people in the region. And so it is not so vital for Turkey as it might have been in the past to have good relations with Israel.”

But despite deteriorating diplomatic relations, bilateral trade has continued to flourish. International relations expert Ozel believes whatever happens, trade will be left largely untouched.

“Trade embargo, I doubt it,” said Because the trade volume is almost $3 billion between the two countries, non-military. So it will hurt some of the constituents of Erdogan as well.”

Trade is still a card Israel can play. The Turkish military is urgently buying sophisticated equipment in the face of a resurgence in fighting against the Kurdish rebel group, the PKK. At the top of its list are drones, of which Israel is a main supplier. As alternative provider the U.S. is tied up due to its own military demands, Ankara may have a vested interest in at least maintaining trade relations with Israel. However, political columnist Asla Aydintasbas says Erdogan has limited room to maneuver.

“Knowing [the] prime minister’s personality and knowing the importance of this issue for Turkey, I don’t see how Turkey can accept anything short of an apology. And frankly there is not a word, which is an apology in English or an apology in Turkish, but is different in Hebrew. It is just what it is,” said the columnist.

International diplomatic efforts are expected to intensify to find a compromise, as Turkey’s deadline for its demands to be met nears.

via Turkey-Israel Relations Reach New Low | Europe | English.