ANKARA, 22 May 2004 — Israel’s heavy-handed policy against the Palestinians has cast clouds on its alliance with Turkey, with observers questioning whether the “strategic” partnership of the two countries is still intact.
Leading the army of critics, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Thursday condemned as “state terror” the killings of civilians in the Rafah refugee camp, while Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned Israel that relations would suffer.
More than 40 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli army began its operations in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. “The killing of civilians in Rafah and the harsh statement with which Erdogan reacted paved the way for the highest tension in bilateral relations in recent years,” the mass-circulation daily Milliyet wrote yesterday. Ankara’s warning to Israel came atop other signs that relations might be on the skids. In April, a visit by Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was postponed without explanation, while in November Erdogan turned down a request by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for a brief visit, citing his busy schedule.
Following the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in March, Erdogan accused Israel of perpetrating a “terrorist act” and angrily conceded that Ankara’s plans to mediate between the Arabs and Israel was “messed up”. There have also been reports that Ankara may sideline Israeli companies from lucrative defense tenders, though these claims have been denied by officials.
“It is impossible for Turkey to keep silent at what Israel is doing today... Turkish leaders believe that the resolution of the Israeli-Arab conflict is a precondition for combating terrorism and bringing democracy to the region,” Mensur Akgun, a scholar of international relations, said.
Erdogan’s government, which has its roots in a banned Islamist movement, is also under pressure from an electorate highly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, he said.
Hundreds of Turkish protesters — ranging from Islamist activists to left-wingers — took to the streets yesterday to denounce the bloody crackdown in Rafah. A crowd of some 800 people gathered outside a major mosque in Istanbul after Friday prayers, burning an Israeli flag and chanting: “Israel, murderer, leave Palestine.” Protests were also held outside Israeli diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul.
Erdogan, meanwhile, underlined that his reaction was not prompted by religious but humanitarian considerations, directing his anger at the hard-line Sharon. “The current Sharon administration takes governmental decisions to kill individuals. And they declare that this will continue. Unless we change this, we can never bring peace to the Middle East,” Erdogan told the Wall Street Journal. “Of course, we are not going to change our relations with the people of Israel just because of our approach to the Sharon administration,” he added.
Columnist Erdal Guven said: “It is obvious that the ‘strategic alliance’ is in a period of erosion,” he wrote in the Radikal daily
