Political relations between Turkey and the Zionist regime have become warmer after Erdogan’s recent expression of interest in “reviving bilateral political relations”, and the Zionist regime’s visit to Ankara. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also held a telephone conversation with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid for the first time after 13 years.

Although relations between Turkey and the Zionist regime have been severed politically and diplomatically for the past 12 years, there were cooperation in the trade, economic, and even military, intelligence, and tourism fields.

Now the Turkish government, in addition to trying to revive bilateral relations, seeks to establish relations beyond the usual diplomatic relations. Erdogan has suggested that Ankara and Tel Aviv work together to transfer the Zionist regime’s natural gas to Europe from Turkey! Negotiations on the Zionist-Turkish “gas pipeline” began in 2016, but have not yet yielded the desired results.

While the Turkish government seeks to rebuild political relations with the Zionist regime, a spokesman for Isaac Herzog, head of the Zionist regime, said in a thought-provoking statement: We will proceed with Turkey very carefully, very slowly. We must not commit ourselves to some kind of purity.

The important point in reviving bilateral relations is that the party that has taken the lead is the Turkish government. Turkey has even removed Palestinian issues from the revival of bilateral relations. With that in mind, Herzog’s spokesman’s remarks are perfectly normal; the Zionist regime, which in recent years has established covert and overt relations with some Arab countries, no longer needs Turkey strategically as in the past. Although Turkey is seeking an “economic” or perhaps strategic “partnership” with the Zionist regime, such an approach is not seen in Tel Aviv. It is enough for Tel Aviv to revive relationships at a normal level.

Turkey’s objectives to improve relations with Zionist regime

“Economy” is a key component of the Turkish government in repairing its foreign relations with Tel Aviv. In recent months, the economic indicators in Turkey have not been favorable and the inflation rate in that country has reached more than 50 percent. This is at a time when the threshold of tolerance of the Turkish people in the face of economic problems is low. Therefore, the Turkish government seeks to revive bilateral relations with the Zionist regime and, as a result, expand economic and foreign trade cooperation with the Zionist regime.

Trump’s four-year presidency was a great opportunity for the Erdogan administration. Thus, the relations between the two countries went beyond the official levels in most matters and were promoted to family trade relations. But with Biden coming to power, this four-year honeymoon is over.

Unlike in the Trump administration, the Biden administration not only pays little attention to the Turkish government, but the White House has become a serious critic of Ankara’s domestic and foreign policy. Therefore, the Turkish government is seeking the “support of the Zionist-American lobby” of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to stay in power by reviving foreign relations with the Zionist regime.

The Zionist regime also pursues important targets in rebuilding political relations with Turkey, which are not unrelated to Turkey’s regional and international position. First, Turkey is an important member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Second, it is “one of the three great regional powers” alongside Iran and Saudi Arabia. In addition, the Zionist regime considers Turkey a “stronghold” against the influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Syria.

Consequences

Turkey has begun the process of rebuilding political relations with the Zionist regime, while Palestine has maintained its stable existence. There has been no change or negligence in the Palestinian nation’s aspirations to fight the Zionist regime and liberate Holy Qods. Meanwhile, Palestine is still the number one issue in the Islamic world, of which Turkey is one of the largest, important and influential countries.

According to the results of the annual “Arab Youth’s Assessment” poll in 2021, about 88% of Muslim and Arab youth consider the Zionist regime as their enemy and believe that normalization of relations between some Arab countries and Tel Aviv has not been able to overshadow its occupation nature!

In such circumstances, Ankara extending a hand of friendship to Tel Aviv is interpreted as nothing more than “disgrace for the Turkish government”, a “major blow to Erdogan’s future and political capital” and a “growing weakening of the AKP’s position”. At the same time, Erdogan’s government and his party will face a “decline in credibility, prestige and political face” in Islamic and regional public opinion.

Final point

Turkey’s economic problems and crisis are temporary and can be resolved through domestic and regional measures without the need to “normalize political relations with Tel Aviv”. The fact that the Turkish government has chosen a difficult and costly path to overcome economic problems and even win the upcoming elections, especially in a situation where anti-Zionist sentiment is growing in Islamic and Arab public opinion, even inside Turkey, will not present a favorable outlook for Ankara.