Apparently the diplomatic row between Turkey and Israel has not ended. The Israeli official who recently touched off a diplomatic crisis with Turkey, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, now says the country’s ambassador could be expelled if Turkish TV dramas continue to depict Israeli security forces as brutal.
When Ayalon called in Ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol earlier last week to reprimand him over a Turkish TV soap opera that showed Israeli agents kidnapping Palestinian children and shooting old men, Celikkol was totally unaware of the unprecedented public dressing down he was about to receive. Avalon seated Celikkol on a sofa noticeably lower than his own chair; wouldn’t shake his hand in televised images of the meeting; had only the Israeli flag on the table; and taking advantage of the fact that Celikkol does not speak Hebrew, told Israeli cameramen, for all to hear: “The important thing is that people see that he’s sitting low down and we’re up high.” The humiliating stunt forced the Israeli government to apologize after Turkey threatened to summon its ambassador home. But the damage had already been done. The incident was only the latest in a series of clashes and confrontations over the last 12 months. In January 2009, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan famously stormed out of the World Economic Forum summit meeting in Davos in protest against Israel’s military onslaught against Gaza, bluntly telling Israeli President Shimon Peres that he knew “very well how to kill”. In August, the Turkish government abruptly cancelled Israeli participation in long-planned trilateral military exercises involving Turkey, Israel and NATO.
So low have ties reached that Turkey’s governing party has said it no longer sees its relationship with Israel as a priority. This is in marked contrast to the situation in the late 1990s when Turkey became Israel’s closest ally in the Muslim world. Relations began to cool, however, after the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) first came to power in November 2002. Obviously, Turkey likes to protest not just in words but pictures. The TV program that Israel found so objectionable is the second of its kind to air in Turkey in recent months. And the scriptwriter of the Turkish television series that sparked the row is working on a movie to be released later this year showing more Israeli crimes against humanity. The movie will focus on Palestinian suffering in the Gaza Strip and, as the scriptwriter says, “depict Israel as it is — with bloody hands, merciless... flouting all human values.”
The upcoming film could cause another spat but of more serious consequences. Ayalon has said that in the event another “objectionable” TV segment was shown, maybe Israel would summon the ambassador; “maybe we would expel their ambassador.” Until then, the Israeli apology for its pedestrian behavior will have little effect. Permanent damage had been done to Israeli-Turkish relations. It may eventually be possible for Turkey and Israel to re-establish a working relationship. But there is no doubt that, for many in Turkey, the current crisis is irrefutable proof that there can be no solid strategic partnership.
The humiliation of Celikkol was undiplomatic and perhaps the outcome of a calculated decision by the Israeli government. For many Turks, the episode is indicative of the attitude of Israel as a whole.
