The Turkish position on the Palestinian issue has always been a subject of controversy and debate.
Because of the Turkish reactions that escalate in conjunction with any escalation between the Palestinians and the Israelis, their results are lackluster and much less than those hoped for by those awaiting the positions of the “Caliph of the Muslims,” as his loyalists called him in the first years of the Justice and Development Party’s arrival to rule Turkey.
By Anha,
Following the recent Hamas operation on Israeli forces on October 7, Turkey initially resorted to remaining silent, and sought greatly to play the role of mediator between Hamas and Israel, but it failed for several reasons, including that Erdogan during the recent period and because of his rush to negotiate with the Gulf states and Egypt With the aim of collecting large sums of money to save his collapsing economy, and this is what actually happened, as both Saudi Arabia and the Emirates placed huge sums of money in Turkish banks. He was forced to give up support for some organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, including the Hamas movement, which compensated for this support by resorting to Iran, and thus no longer supported it. Turkey has a lot of influence on the Hamas leadership, especially the field personnel.
In addition, previous experiences made Turkey a dishonest and unreliable mediator, as reported by Western and Israeli media, and as a result of Turkey’s failure to be a mediator, it returned to its role of criticizing and attacking Israel and raising the flag of Palestine, but in reality everything is different.
When talking about the Turkish position, the memory of the people of the region compares Turkey’s current position with its position with the siege of Gaza in 2010, when Turkey clashed diplomatically with Israel and reached the stage of Turkey directing the “Marmara” ship to break the Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, a measure that Israel faced with a devastating bombing. 10 Turks were killed and 56 others were injured, and despite the severing of political relations, economic relations grew.
Despite the statements and political bickering, Turkish exports to Israel amounted to $2.4 billion in 2011, rising to $4.7 billion in 2020, and Turkey’s imports from Israel reached $1.5 billion in 2020.
Then trade between them jumped from $6.5 billion in 2020 to $10 billion by the end of 2022. Thus, the volume of trade exchange achieved growth by more than 52% in the period between 2013 and 2021 and is still likely to rise significantly, especially in light of the new agreements.
According to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ankara is working to increase the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries to $15 billion. The number of Israeli tourists in Turkey also rose to more than 631,000, an increase of five and a half times compared to the previous year, and in 2022, the Israeli Ministry of Transport said that Israel and Turkey will expand bilateral air traffic, under a new aviation agreement, the first between them since 1951.
Among the most prominent agreements concluded between the two parties in recent months was an agreement to transport Israeli gas through Turkish territory as an alternative to the EastMed line, which passes through Greek and Cypriot territory. Turkey also concluded agreements with Israel for joint exploration for gas in the Mediterranean Sea.
