On July 28, 2024, the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, brought his country’s relations with Israel to the lowest point when he literally threatened it militarily: “Just as we entered Nagorno Karabakh (the Caucasus region) and Libya, we will do the same in Israel. We need to be strong.” . Israel’s Foreign Minister Katz responded: “Erdoğan is following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and is threatening to attack Israel. Just let him remember what happened there and how it ended.”
Erdoğan’s Turkey is a different country from what almost every Israeli has known over the past decades, not only has their president become very extreme against Israel on a level that only enemy Islamic countries express, not that he has already managed to spread hatred even to many on the Turkish street who until recently loved Israel .
Until very recently and for many years, relations between Turkey and Israel were generally very good, relative to a Muslim country – Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize the State of Israel in 1949, and in the early 1950s diplomatic relations were established between the two countries. From the end of the 1980s Until close to 2010, Turkey and Israel were close allies that were reflected in security cooperation (primarily before Erdogan) and economic cooperation (until a few months ago) and in the fact that hundreds of thousands of Israelis went to vacation and shop in Turkey, which hosted them with a generous heart.
The strengthening of the Islamization of Turkey under Erdogan has led to instability in relations, which are greatly affected by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, among the Turkish people, there was actually relative sympathy for Israel and the Israeli tourists were welcomed and sympathized. This trend began to change as the President of Turkey spoke out harshly against Israel and he repeatedly spoke out in an extreme manner and on different occasions, he presented the Prime Minister of Israel as the Nazi oppressor Hitler and the State of Israel as endangering the future of Turkey and more.
At the Olympic Games, an extreme thing happened – the Turkish television interrupted its broadcasts, as soon as it realized that the Israeli Judaist had defeated the Turkish representative. A move that is reserved for the darkest countries like North Korea and there are not many more examples to give.
Following the assassination of the head of Hamas’s political bureau, Haniyeh, Erdogan’s spokesman accused Instagram of preventing the publication of condolences to the Hamas leader who was assassinated in Tehran, and the Ministry of Communications announced its blocking….again a move that indicates that this is a regime that is only pretending to be democratic. The Turkish media is scared, the opposition goes to jail, the Turkish president increasingly threatens his opponents and hence everything is based on one tyrant.
But, is all the Turkish extremism the product of one person who, once he is gone, love will bloom again like a Turkish batenlovela? No! Now it is no longer certain that he is alone – the extremism of the president has already deeply affected Turkish politics and too many of the Turkish people
In Turkey after October 7, saluting the killers of Hamas, murals and inscriptions saying “Israel is a killer” in synagogues and in the metro of Istanbul, Erdogan’s party’s “Bitown” called for “put an end to the state of terror, destroy the virus” (Israel), in the media implying that Israel wants to occupy the Northern Cyprus and the initiative of attacks against Turkey, the ruling party’s slogan reads “The defense of Turkey begins in Gaza” (meaning that Israel endangers the existence of Turkey). In Turkey, media people close to the establishment are already calling for the annihilation of the State of Israel and stepping on Israeli flags in the streets.
Throughout the years, Erdogan severely criticized Israel and created some kind of creature that he can no longer control in terms of public opinion.
On the evening after the surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, thousands went out to celebrate in Istanbul, the operation of Hamas, it was the biggest celebration outside of an enemy state of Israel.
Erdogan said in his speech in the Turkish parliament that “Hamas is not a terrorist organization but a liberation movement that is waging a war to protect its land.”
Following the hostile atmosphere towards Israel in Turkey, the Counter-Terrorism Headquarters issued on October 17 a travel warning to the highest-ranking country and to Israelis staying there to leave immediately. It reached a situation where Turkish basketball teams had to host Israeli teams on a neutral court in Bosnia.
On January 14, 2024, the Israeli soccer player Shagib Yehezkel was arrested and taken for questioning after stating 100 days for the kidnapping to Gaza during a game in the Turkish league.
In April 2024, Turkey imposed restrictions on exports to Israel until a ceasefire in the war was announced
In May 2024, the Bloomberg news agency published that Erdogan ordered a complete halt to all trade relations between Turkey and Israel.
On June 30, 2024, an El Al plane that took off from Warsaw Airport made an emergency landing at Antalya International Airport, due to a medical problem of one of the passengers. The passengers did not have the option to get off the plane (including the female passenger with the medical problem) and the Turkish crew refused to refuel the plane so that it would take off to Israel.
Erdogan took a harsh anti-Israel line on foreign and security issues, and in particular in relation to the Palestinian issue. As a result, tensions arose between Turkey and Israel. In May 2004, following the killing of Palestinians in Rafah during an IDF operation, he claimed that this was state terrorism and that he saw no difference between Israel and the terrorist organizations, since “they kill civilians and you kill civilians.”
During 2008 he contributed to the indirect talks between Israel and Syria held in Turkey.
Even in the past, relations with Turkey knew low moments, especially during tense periods in Gaza, the same was the case with the Marmara flotilla and more, but relations have always returned to good mainly because of Erdogan’s desire to get closer to the US when he realizes that the road there goes through Israel.
For decades, the masses of Israelis have enjoyed going to Turkey to vacation there, due to the full value they received for their money in the hotels and pampering holiday villages closest to the homes they know. Likewise, Turkey is the closest country, the cheapest for shopping for Israelis, including for businessmen who made transactions of raw products worth billions of shekels.
Many years will take from the moment Erdogan retires, or goes in any way until the atmosphere in Turkey changes against Israel. At the moment it is so visible on the horizon.
