Erdogan and Israel: privileges granted by Turkey to Zionist entity

Mahmoud Al-Batakoushi

In the second part of the file “Erdogan and Israel, 17 Years of Forbidden Love”, we reviewed the development of military relations between Turkey and Israel and how the Justice and Development Party plotted against the Palestinian issue.

In the third part of the file, we deal with the privileges that Turkey granted to the Zionist entity, and increased trade relations under the rule of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Trade with Israel increased tenfold in the era of “justice and development party”

The Islamic world expected the decline of cooperation between Turkey and Israel after the ruling Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002, due to its alleged Islamic successor, but the practical reality was otherwise, the Turkish pragmatism pushed them towards Israel more.

Machiavellian Erdogan appeared in cooperation with the Zionist entity, not only remained on the security and economic partnerships signed by Suleiman Demirel, the former Turkish President, but also worked to update and add new items to the agreement. In 2006 and 2007 he granted preferential treatment to the Israeli partner.

In 2008, the two parties sought to include commercial exchanges between them in a huge project called “Med Stream”, which is a multi-purpose pipeline that extends from Turkey to Israel, from which the two countries benefit in the production of electricity and the delivery of natural gas, crude oil and water.

Under this agreement, Turkey was transformed to a financier of iron and steel, automobiles, plastics, clothing, and various electrical and agricultural appliances for Israel.

The Marmara ship accident, in which 10 Turkish activists were killed near the coast of Gaza at the hands of the Israeli commando in May 2010, was a declaration of war on Ankara.

While the world expected an earthquake response from Turkey in revenge for its citizens, none of this happened, and relations remained between the two countries intact.

During the so-called “years of rupture” between the two countries in the aftermath of the Marmara accident, in 2013, the trade between Ankara and Tel Aviv reached $4.8 billion, $ 2.3 billion Turkish exports to Israel, and $ 2.5 billion Israeli exports to Turkey.

By 2014, Turkey became the sixth largest trading partner of Israel, with $ 5.3 billion, $ 2.6 billion, Turkish exports, compared to $ 2.7 billion in Israeli exports.

In 2015, their trade volume reached 4.1 billion dollars, 2.4 billion dollars for Turkish exports, and 1.7 billion dollars for Israeli exports.

Statistics of the International Monetary Fund confirmed that Israel ranked tenth as the largest market for Turkish exports in 2017, as it bought goods worth approximately $ 3.4 billion from Turkey.