Erdogan and Israel (Part 2): Development of military relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv

Mahmoud al-Batakoushi

In the first part of this series, “Erdogan and Israel: 17 years of forbidden love”, we reviewed how US and Israeli intelligence made Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan their puppet in the region to support and realize their interests.

In this second part, we deal with the development of military relations between Turkey and Israel, as well as how Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) conspired against the Palestinian issue.

Turkish-Israeli military cooperation exposes Erdogan’s betrayal of Palestine

Despite the Islamic slogans and statements that Erdogan reiterates regarding Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause, reality reveals his lies.

In 2002, after the AKP came to power, Turkey signed a military contract with Israel worth $999 million, with the goal of increasing the number of Turkey’s M-90 tanks to 270. In 2005, Turkey purchased 20 ground stations, each with three or four drones, from the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) at a cost of $294 million.

Also in 2005, Erdogan visited Israel and discussed with officials the signing of a military deal amounting to half a billion dollars providing for the modernization of four F4 Phantom warplanes. In March 2009, the Turkish military concluded two defense deals with Israel, the first deal for high-tech reconnaissance programs and the second for radar jamming systems.

In 2008, joint military and air exercises were held with Israel and the United States, while intelligence cooperation continued between Turkey and Israel over the Kurds, as the war between Turkey and the Kurds is considered one of the main motives that prompted Ankara to side with Israel militarily and request advanced equipment to monitor the Kurds in northern Iraq and Syria.

Turkey also hosts the largest weapons factories of the Israeli army. Military cooperation has continued to allow Israeli military aircraft to fly over Turkish airspace, allowing Israeli pilots to fly over Turkish territory to train and refine their capabilities to accurately kill Palestinians, in confusing contrast to the position of the Turkish president and his party on the Palestinian issue.

In July 2014, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge against the Hamas movement, which forced Erdogan to come out with anti-Semitic statements in support his clients in Gaza, saying that “the Israeli attack on Gaza has exceeded Hitler’s brutality.”

But surprisingly, Erdogan’s government at this time was providing the IDF with food rations and various supplies during the war in Gaza, which was disclosed by the Israeli Ministry of Defense after being annoyed by Erdogan’s anti-government statements. The ministry confirmed in a statement that the food products used by the Israeli army are imported from Turkey, pointing out that similar deals were concluded by Erdogan with the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon in 2002, which will continue until 2022.

It was also discovered that Kurdish oil from northern Iraq was sold to Israel via Turkey, which was used to fuel Israeli aircraft that bombed the Gaza Strip in 2014. A report by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) in August 2015 indicated a continuous increase in Israeli oil exports to Turkey.

During the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip between July 2014 and May 2015, Israeli oil exports to Turkey increased by 84.95%, from 118,000 tons to 218,000 tons.

Military cooperation between Turkey and Israel did not stop there. Rather, it extended to Erdogan using Israeli drones while supporting the militias of Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of the Tripoli-based Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), as the Libyan National Army (LNA) shot down two Israeli-made Orbiter-3 drones.

Also, the Turkish press revealed one of the issues that were not mentioned in the speeches of the ruling authority in Ankara. In December 2012, the spokesman for the Turkish community in Israel, Rafael Sadi, confirmed that there are a large number of Turkish citizens serving within the Israeli army due to Erdogan involving his country’s army in useless wars and conflicts with the PKK in the southeast of the country and in northern Iraq, which still inflicts dozens of losses on the army day after day. This is in addition to the armed conflicts with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), not to mention the Cyprus territorial waters dispute.

Erdogan’s fierce attack on the Turkish army after the scripted July 2016 coup attempt contributed to the reluctance of Turkish youths to serve in the army, which can be seen as part of Erdogan’s ambitious plan to liquidate the Turkish military.