Farahmand Alipour

In the past, everything seemed to be going well for the Israeli-Turkish relationship. The Turks were the first Muslim nation to recognize Israel as a state, less than two decades after the establishment of the Zionist state in 1948 and twenty-three years before any Arab country.

Over the years, the Israelis equipped the Turkish military with sophisticated weaponry. High-ranking Turkish military officers are the protectors of secularism and Ataturk’s heritage in Turkey. Like their counterparts in Israel, Turkish generals are not fond of Islamists, especially those in their country. Their relationship was not just about purchasing arms. The Israelis helped the Turks suppress the Kurdish population and go after radical Armenian groups. The powerful Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, came to Turkey’s aid more than once. Everything was fine, even the growing trend of bilateral trade between the two states seemed better than ever.

However, the warm Turkish-Israeli relationship began to show signs of trouble during the Israeli strike on Gaza in 2008. On January 30, 2009, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on President Shimon Peres of Israel in Davos with an emotional tone and blamed him for Israel’s actions in Gaza. He said that Israeli soldiers had committed war crimes and turned to killing women and children. Erdogan left Davos and returned to his country only to receive a hero’s welcome.

Diplomatic ties between the Islamist government of Turkey and the hard-line government of Israel might have deteriorated in the past couple of years, but no one should forget that it was during this very Islamist government that Shimon Peres addressed the Turkish parliament. This was the first time that Peres was speaking at the parliament of a Muslim country as Israel’s president.

Some people believe that Erdogan is following the footsteps of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the Turkish parliament, Erdogan calls on Jewish statesmen and warns them not to test the limits of Turkey’s patience. Turkey is furious about the Israeli commandos’ attack on the peace flotilla and has called this “state terrorism.”

Also, to some it appears to some that Turkey is trying to replace the Islamic Republic as the region’s chief producer of anti-Israeli rhetoric—which would be a challenge. Some people might think that Iran would welcome such a move because this would prove that Tehran was finally able to bring a friend of Israel into the ranks of its foes. This, however, is not a reasonable assessment.

These days, it is Ahmadinejad who takes the strongest and harshest anti-Israeli positions. He is the one who says Israel should be wiped off the map and it is his government whose nuclear activities frighten the Israelis. Thanks to petro dollars, Iran has been very generous to Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Syrian government. And “Death to Israel” has been chanted for over thirty years on the streets of Iran.

Ahmadinejad might be unwelcomed in the West, and he is certainly not loved by a large number of the Iranian people, but he is admired on the streets of the Arab world and Turkey. This has always surprised Iranians when they encounter their Arab and Turkish neighbors.

This is a reality that the Turkish government has understood very well. Planting the seeds of anti-Israeli rhetoric will always be fruitful in the Middle East. Arabs in the Middle East have become disappointed by multiple defeats at the hands of Israel and their pride has been hurt. Their peace proposals, even the one offered by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, are rejected one after another. Israel has refused to accept their offers and has consistently raised the ante to make it more difficult to negotiate.

The wave of Islamic awakening that began in the region a few decades ago is now pounding hard at the doors of Turkish secularism. Today, public opinion in Ankara is becoming similar to Cairo and Damascus. Islam is not just a religion to Turks. It is the reminder of their glorious Ottoman past. It is the reminder of a time when the Turks ruled the Muslim empire and controlled large parts of Europe—the very same continent that has made Turkey wait many years for its EU membership. It is within this context that exploiting Islam comes to the aid of Turkish diplomacy and makes Erdogan a hero on many streets in the Middle East.

That Erdogan wants to become the hero of the Arab world should not worry anyone. The Israeli embassy is still very active in Turkey. But in the mayhem of political rhetoric, Erdogan skillfully gets more economic deals signed with Arabs and increases investments in the Iranian oil and gas field. With its sound economic policies, Erdogan’s government has become even more popular at home and has silenced its secular critics.

Erdogan wants to turn Ankara into the diplomatic capital of the region, where all peace deals will be signed. Erdogan’s vision of Ankara is where the Iranian nuclear case will be resolved and where the Middle East peace process is resumed.

Turkey is getting used to the realities of the Middle East. The Turks have outmaneuvered the Iranians with their skillful diplomatic gestures. This is good news for the West as well. Turkey does not want to destroy Israel, but it has created major competition for Ahmadinejad over winning hearts and minds in the Middle East.

Farahmand Alipour is a former journalist with Etemade-e Melli newspaper. He left Iran and lived in Turkey for several months before settling in Italy.