Sunday’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 6 2009
Turkey rethinks military cooperation with Israel
Last month Israeli Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer’s (L)
visit was the first of its kind from an Israeli statesmen since Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an walked out of a World Economic Forum
session in January.
Turkey and Israel are currently going through one of the rockiest
moments in their history.
The precariousness of the relationship between the two countries,
decided mainly by the Palestinian problem, is now manifest in the
field of military cooperation. Traditionally, military contracts
between Turkey and Israel have always kept bilateral relations from
collapsing, but cooperation in the recent period in security and
intelligence has nearly halted completely. Civil society organizations
in Turkey want all existing agreements between the two countries to be
annulled.
The first strain in relations occurred when Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip ErdoÄ?an requested `one minute’ from a moderator in Davos during
a World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in January to finish his speech,
followed by a dramatic walkout in protest of Israel’s Gaza policies.
In October, Turkey excluded Israel from a multinational air defense
exercise at the last minute.
Although the primary factor in the deterioration of the relations is
the situation in Gaza, Israel’s constant failure to fulfill the
conditions it guaranteed to carry out in military contracts has also
contributed to a loss of confidence, particularly regarding the
modernization contracts for Heron and F-4 warplanes and M-60 tanks.
Israel has defended itself, saying that Turkey’s demands concerning
these contracts are simply not realistic.
If the two countries fail to overcome the gap in confidence, it might
be impossible for Israel or Israeli companies in the future to win
military contracts in Turkey.
The most striking example of the recent development was the
cancellation of the $38 million Lorop Project, bought from the Israeli
Elop Electro-Optic Company by the Air Forces Command. In addition to
this, a $40 million tender for the Harpy II system was canceled by the
order of Air Forces Commander Gen. Faruk Cömert.
Yet another factor that has damaged the relationship of the two
countries is the relationship between Israel and northern Iraq.
Interior Minister BeÅ?ir Atalay has stated that he was deeply offended
when the Israeli army trained troops in northern Iraq.
A history of relations
Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel. Traditionally
the contents of military contracts with Israel have been kept highly
confidential, as well as the method of their signing. The first
agreement between the two countries was signed on July 4, 1950. It was
a trade agreement. Later, an air transportation contract was signed
between the two countries in February 1951. However, Turkey started
seeing Israel as the biggest threat in the Middle East at the time of
meetings for the Baghdad Pact, straining relations between the two
countries. In 1956, Turkey recalled its ambassador in Israel when
England, France and Israel attacked Egypt over this country’s
nationalization of the Suez Canal.
After this point, the two countries chose to conduct their
relationship in a more low-profile manner. In 1958, Israeli Prime
Minister David Ben Gurion and Foreign Minister Golda Meir came to
Turkey, where they held secret talks with then-Prime Minister Adnan
Menderes. The two countries signed a top-secret agreement against the
Soviet threat, known as the Environment Alliance. Only the top 10
politicians and generals knew about the agreement. In fact, this
agreement has been kept from the public eye until very recently.
Today, Turkey officially rejects the existence of such an agreement,
but Israeli archives suggest otherwise. Most surprisingly, Iran,
Israel’s archenemy, appears as a third signatory to this agreement.
In 1966, Turkey failed to secure Israel’s support for the vote on
Cyprus in the United Nations, further straining relations between the
two countries. In 1966, Turkey notified the Israeli military attaché
that military cooperation between the two countries was officially
over. In 1967, at the time of the Arab-Israeli war, Turkey refused to
give clearance to US planes bringing logistical supplies to Israel,
while it let USSR planes helping Arab countries through its airspace.
Relations normalized after US interference
Israeli-Turkish relations deteriorated further until the military coup
in 1980 in Turkey. Upon the escalation of tensions, 61 US senators
sent a letter to the US ambassador in 1981, asking him to make special
efforts toward the improvement of Turkish-Israeli relations.
Following this letter, Turkey, with an order from then-President and
coup leader Kenan Evren, abstained from a vote on the UN resolution
which condemned the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights. In return
for this, Israel provided intelligence to Turkey about the Armenian
terror organization ASALA. A new era began in Turkish-Israeli
relations when intelligence units from both countries carried out a
joint operation in Zahle, east of Beirut, dealing a heavy blow to
Lebanon’s ASALA faction and JCGA militants.
This warm rapprochement between the two countries gained a new
dimension with then-Prime Minister Turgut Ã-zal’s visit to the United
States in 1985, when he met secretly with the Jewish lobby. From that
date on, it became a tradition for Turkish prime ministers to visit
with the Jewish lobby during their visits to the US.
Being the first Muslim country that recognized Israel in 1948, Turkey
was also among the first countries to recognize the establishment of
the state of Palestine, on Nov. 15, 1988. Since 1950, Turkey had tried
to keep its relations with Israel secret; however, after a deal
between Israel and Palestine in 1993, Turkey made its relations with
Israel public.
>From this date on, full cooperation began between Israel and Turkey.
In 1992, a tourism cooperation agreement between Turkey and Israel
became the first of a series of agreements to be signed. A visit paid
by Israeli President Ezer Weizman on Jan. 25, 1994, was meaningful in
that it was the first Israeli presidential visit to Turkey.
Ã?iller’s term
A visit from Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to Turkey in April
1994 was the start of a new era. Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ã?iller
made a proposal to cooperate in intelligence sharing and
anti-terrorism, a watershed event in the history of the two countries’
relations. Ã?iller also signed a treaty with Israel on March 31, 1994,
assuring full confidentiality on all agreements signed with Israel.
Between 1994 and 1997, Turkey signed 19 agreements with Israel, 12 of
these ironically signed by the anti-Israeli government of Necmettin
Erbakan’s Welfare Party (RP).
Constitution and agreements with Israel
For the 12 agreements signed under the Erbakan government, some have
speculated that they are unconstitutional as the signature under these
was that of then-Chief of Staff Gen. İsmail Hakkı Karadayı and not the
Turkish defense minister, as should be per the law. None of the
agreements were ratified by Parliament, another violation of the
Turkish Constitution.
Nurettin AktaÅ?, a former deputy from the Justice and Development Party
(AK Party), submitted a question to Parliament in 2002 querying the
number of military treaties with Israel and their content.
Then-Defense Minister Sabahattin Ã?akmakoÄ?lu said there were 13 defense
agreements with Israel, the content of which had not been ratified by
Parliament due to confidentiality clauses.
Speaking to Sunday’s Zaman, AktaÅ? said: `All treaties with Israel are
against the Constitution. If the government wants to, it can annul all
of these.’
A similar question motion was submitted by Republican People’s Party’s
(CHP) Kemal Anadol. The response, from Foreign Minister Ahmet
DavutoÄ?lu, also confirmed confidentiality. Of these secret agreements,
Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an had spoken of several during a party congress
in Kütahya.
Problems in treaties
In the long term, most of these agreements have worked to damage
relations between the two countries. Israeli companies won $500
million in tenders to modernize 54 F-4 warplanes and 48 Phantom
planes. Another project was the joint manufacturing of Leopard tanks,
which were developed, incidentally, by a team of engineers including
former Prime Minister Erbakan.
Some observers have also stated that the Feb. 28 unarmed military
intervention of 1997, which took place exactly three days after
then-Chief of General Staff Gen. Karadayı’s visit to Israel, is also
meaningful, claiming that the military’s close rapport with Israel
played a role in the intervention.
After Erbakan’s RP was ousted by the 1997 intervention, a Motherland
Party (ANAVATAN)-Democratic Left Party (DSP) coalition government came
to power. In this period, the two countries’ relations truly
blossomed. Turkey and Israel started participating in military drills
together. There still was slight tension in this period due to
Israel’s attack on Aksa, Palestine, that year. However, the coalition
government led by Bülent Ecevit never fully severed ties with Israel.
To the contrary, the most important military projects began to be
awarded to Israel.
In 2002, Turkey awarded a contract for the modernization of 170
American-made M-60 A1 tanks to Israel. Those who were against this
were accused of anti-Semitism by Chief of General Staff Gen. Hüseyin
Kıvrık&#x C4;±oÄ?lu. In the face of controversy around this $1.035 billion
tender, the Israeli IMI company reduced the tender price. However, the
modernization project did not succeed in the way Turkey wanted.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy Erdal Sipahi said his party
and many others in Parliament at the time objected to this tender
being awarded to Israel, but `an order from above’ handed it to
Israel.
Sipahi says: `According to the contract, these tanks were supposed to
be modernized by the end of 2003. Later, they reset the date and moved
this to 2007. We are now in 2009, and the project has not yet been
completed. The cost of a single tank for Turkey has reached $4.5
million. Leopard-2 tanks that we buy from Germany on the other hand
cost $1 million per tank. I don’t think those tanks would be of any
use after all this time even if Israel completed the delivery.’
A major controversy about this tender was the technical capability of
Turkish military defense company ASELSAN, which was able to complete
the modernization of 162 Leopard tanks for just over $160 million.
Projects under way
Currently, the cost of military tenders awarded to Israel and Israeli
companies stands at $1.8 billion. The annual trade volume between the
two countries is $2.6 million. When the AK Party came to power in
2002, Israel sought to maintain warm relations with the government.
However, the first crisis broke with Israel in January during the
bombings of the Gaza Strip.
In May 2007, ErdoÄ?an visited Israel, which was returned with a visit
by Israeli President Shimon Peres in November that year. After the two
visits, Turkey awarded $700 million in projects involving tank
modernization and the modernization of 48 warplanes and 300
helicopters. In the latest agreement with Israel, Turkey bought 10
unmanned Heron air vehicles; however, there has been a major delay in
Israel’s delivery of the Herons, only adding to the problems of the
M-60 tender. The Herons, which were initially promised for May 2008,
were finally delivered last month. The Air Forces are currently
testing these aircraft, but it is hard to say that Israel’s next job
will be as easy in the next military tender.
06 December 2009, Sunday
ERCAN YAVUZ ANKARA