What's really driving Turkish-Israeli reconciliation?
Turkey has started what looks like a sharp turn in its relations with Israel in consideration of shared security and military priorities, though it will take some time to rebuild ties to their former levels.
As expected, Ankara has begun to take sharp turns in its foreign policy. Following a statement by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim that Turkey will pursue a more realistic foreign policy to decrease enemies and increase friends, the first major turn has appeared in Israel-Turkey relations.
Relations between the two countries were radically degraded after May 31, 2010, when the Israeli military raided a Turkish flotilla that was trying to break through the Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian relief supplies to Gaza. Israeli soldiers killed 10 Turkish nationals in the course of the incident.
Ankara withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv and asked Israel to apologize, pay indemnity to the families of the victims and lift its blockade on Gaza. When Israel did not respond, Turkey drastically lowered diplomatic relations and suspended its entire gamut of military agreements and defense projects with Israel. The military-security field has definitely suffered the most from the friction between the two countries after the Mavi Marmara incident.
Before the flotilla raid, there was truly far-reaching military cooperation between Israel and Turkey that dated back to the 1960s and peaked in the 1990s.
