Turkey's Policies Shaken Up by Ire Against Israel

ISTANBUL (June 24) -- After the Israeli assault on the Gaza-bound ship Mavi Marmara left nine Turkish citizens dead last month, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned, "Nothing would ever be the same again."

Certainly it isn't yet. Turkey, once a quiet Western ally and NATO stalwart, is taking criticism from unexpected quarters as it carves out a new foreign policy in which Israel -- another staunch U.S. ally -- has become a key antagonist.

In the media battle over the incident, Erdogan's Islam-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) has dialed up the rhetoric in a bid to heighten its popularity among a Turkish public vehemently opposed to Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.

Some in the party have attempted to link the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara with the recent resurgence of an older enemy of Turkey, the militant Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). Early in the morning of May 31, the same day as the raid on the Turkish ship, PKK guerrillas attacked a Turkish naval base, killing seven Turkish soldiers. "We do not think it's a coincidence that these two attacks took place at the same time," Huseyin Celik, deputy chairman of AKP, said in a statement.

The charge has resurfaced since then as the conflict between the PKK and Turkish forces has intensified. "These terrorists were trained by Israeli intelligence officers on how to best penetrate cities," Sedat Laciner, the head of International Strategic Research Organization, an Ankara-based think tank considered close to the government, said earlier this month. "The PKK is a mere contractor for Israel to serve that purpose."

Turkey expert Henri Barkey of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace flatly rejected those claims. "It shows you the poverty of political discourse in Turkey," he said. "As if the Israelis can turn on a dime and do this, even if relations with Turkey are not good. Israelis for a long time completely sided with Turks on [the Kurdish issue]. This shows you the Turks are so incapable of analysis they cannot analyze anything when blame should be apportioned to them. They have to blame someone else for their problems."

Indeed, despite the rhetoric linking Israel to the PKK, about 20 Turkish military officers and soldiers landed in Israel on Tuesday to receive training on operating unmanned Heron drones, which are used to gather intelligence on Kurdish rebels along Turkey's southern border with Iraq.

Turkish Gen. Ilker Basbug said that within the last 10 days, his troops had begun using Israeli-made Heron drones on surveillance missions over Turkey's mountainous eastern border with Iraq.

Turkey agreed to buy 10 Heron drones from Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems in 2005 for an estimated $190 million. Technical problems kept the drones from being delivered for several years, but now six drones are in use in southeast Turkey. The Turkish military delegation is expected to return with the remaining four drones after a two-week visit to the Jewish state.

Washington has vowed to back Turkey in its battle with the PKK, which the United States and the European Union consider a terrorist organization. But there is some evidence that Turkey's denunciations of Israel, as well as its vote this month against new U.N. sanctions against Iran, are beginning to exact a cost on its relationship with the U.S. and the EU.

Some U.S. supporters of Israel who once also backed Turkey are picking sides, by, for instance, threatening support for a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, which has long been sidelined because of close U.S.-Turkey ties.

The Wall Street Journal's op-ed editor, Robert L. Pollock, this month called Erdogan and his foreign minister "demagogues appealing to the worst elements in their own country and the broader Middle East."

"They don't deserve to be a part of the European Union until they start behaving more like European nations and a whole lot less like Iran," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

While most European states condemned the Israeli attack, Turkey's stance is reinforcing the view of key EU members such as France and Germany that it should not join the trading bloc.

"[French President Nicolas] Sarkozy has few deeply rooted beliefs, but that Turkey should not join the EU is one of them," says Francois Heisbourg of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research. "He would only cave under unanimous European pressure, which won't happen."

Following the attack, Turkey vowed to reduce relations with Israel to a minimum, recalling its ambassador and canceling not only joint military exercises, but also a 20-year agreement to supply Israel with water. On June 8, Turkey and Russia announced that a plan to extend Blue Stream II, a pipeline that will transport Russian gas to the Middle East, would most likely exclude Israel.

And despite the Turkish military delegation currently in Israel, Burak Bekdil, a columnist for Istanbul's Hurriyet Daily News, says Turkey won't hesitate to cancel new deals with Israeli defense manufacturers.

"The ongoing programs date back to years ago, and it would be legally, commercially and militarily too complicated to scrap them," he said. "I don't expect to see new deals with Israel in the foreseeable future."