Turkey-Israel Rapprochement
I don't know, have you ever had the opportunity to go to Jaffa, an Ottoman city, the pearl of the Eastern Mediterranean? I was able to catch it, I consider myself very lucky indeed. I think the word "jaffa" is not foreign to you. You know, you remember the "Jaffa" orange, which replaces "Washington", which can be found in markets and grocery stores these days. But please do not perceive this ascription as Turkey's approach to the USA-Israel. But let's not forget, in the past, such approaches and initiatives came out of the Ottoman Empire and spread in waves to the human world in circles. Jaffa was the entry point for successive waves of immigrants to Palestine driven by Zionism and encouraged by British sympathy by the 1917 declaration of the British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour. The pioneers who came to Jaffa established their unique rural settlement community and cooperative forms – kibbutz and moshav – for this purpose in the region. (one)
I had the pleasure of seeing Jaffa, Tel Aviv, which expanded to the north with the increase of Jewish settlements, and Jerusalem up close at the "History and Socio-Cultural Contexts of High Technologies" meeting held by the International Committee on the History of Technology at Tel Aviv University in mid-August 2015. . I had the happiness of walking around the street, street, step by step, all of a sudden. Jaffa was a typical Ottoman city famous for its beaches. It was also the starting point of the Jerusalem railway, Jaffa. At that time, the term railway was equivalent to the light of civilization and civilization. The Jaffa-Jerusalem railway line was one of the first railways of the Ottoman Empire, just as Thessaloniki was connected to Skopje. The first place I called was the Jaffa railway station.
Let's remember, the first railway built in the Syria / Palestine region was between Jaffa and Jerusalem. This railway project, which is calculated to extend from Jaffa, a port city, to Jerusalem, was given to the French. It can be said that the famous secret agreement Sykes-Picot, which meant the division of the Middle East in 1916, and leaving Syria to the French after the First World War, had an impact on this. In the general planning of taking the Syrian region under the domination of the French step by step, it is very meaningful that this project was taken by the French at that time. Although there were occasional interruptions to rail transport, this central station was not closed until 1998. With the establishment of the State of Israel, the "Savidor Central" train station, located in the middle of the city of Tel Aviv, was chosen as the main center. That's why I went to Jerusalem from the Hebrew word "Merkaz Savidor". Tel Aviv Conservatory students played classical music 24 hours a day, in turns, at a piano placed in the middle of the station. I must say that I am very impressed. But now Jaffa station has been turned into a railway museum and entertainment centre. What is interesting is that they avoided carrying an Ottoman legacy into the future, which revealed the extraordinary contribution of the Ottoman Empire to this project, which it carried out with all its might. What shall we say? Old Ottoman wagons and locomotive adorned the railway car park. There were full-length pictures of Jewish workers working in the construction of the railway on its walls, but there was nothing Ottoman, and there was no mention. The inscriptions of 1892 and Old Turkish were still alive on the train sleepers, despite all this being forgotten. Extensions to Gaza and Nablus were added to the Jaffa-Jerusalem railway line, which was completed in 1892. A railway of 86 km was built between Jaffa and Jerusalem. With the pickaxe, the "City of the Three Heavenly Religions" or the "Holy City of the Abrahamic Religions" was reached by accident, exactly 130 years ago. For this reason, Suleiman the Magnificent had "La ilahe illallah İbrahim Halilullah" written on the pediment of the El Halil Gate of Old Jerusalem. (2nd)
The almshouse of Hürrem Sultan, the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, who built the walls of Jerusalem; Today, it still continues its function of giving food to women first. "Haseki Sultan Soup House", which was built in 1552 by Hurrem Sultan, the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, maintains its characteristic of being the common shelter of the poor around the Masjid-i Aksa. In fact, Suleiman the Magnificent not only reminded us of an unchanging truth, that Allah is the only one, and that Prophet Ibrahim was the friend of Allah, with the phrase "La ilahe illallah İbrahim Halillullah", he also wanted unity and integrity to be engraved in the minds. Jews were not allowed to enter Jerusalem after 70 AD and this continued until 1967. Christians, on the other hand, could only enter Jerusalem using the Hebron Gate.
As you know, "Jerusalem" is the first qibla of Muslims, Hz. It is the place where the prophet ascended to heaven. The first qibla of Muslims houses Masjid al-Aqsa, one of the three holiest mosques. During the Ottoman period, Surre Regiments would head first to Jerusalem and then to Mecca-yi Mükerreme and Medina-yi Münevvere to fulfill the pilgrimage mission. The Hejaz railway, which started from Damascus, was opened in 1908 after the Jerusalem railway. This railroad is
e He made not only Muslim pilgrim candidates, but also Christian pilgrims happy and blessed. These two railway projects, which lead to holy places, not only unite cultures and civilizations, but also integrate people, societies and peoples.
Azerbaijan has contributed, albeit indirectly, to the rapprochement between Israel and Turkey. As you know, Israel and Turkey mutually withdrew their ambassadors after the Mavi Marmara attack in 2010, and diplomatic relations were maintained at the level of chargé d'affaires. This situation continued until 2016. London Deputy Ambassador Eitan Naeh, who served in Ankara as the second and first clerk between 1993-1997, became the first Ambassador of Israel to Ankara after his relations returned to normal in 2016, after serving as the Ambassador in Baku. For this reason, the Azerbaijan factor is of great importance for Israel in order to improve relations with Turkey, and in a sense to repair it. The diplomatic crisis between the two countries, which has been going on for 6 years since 2010, was reached in June 2016; The agreement was approved by the Turkish Grand National Assembly on 20 August and by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 31 August. While it was said that the relations had fully improved, when it was understood that the Middle East Peace Plan of the USA in 2018 included the declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Turkey had to withdraw its Israeli ambassador once again. (3)
The Republic of Turkey has demonstrated on every occasion its peaceful and embracing attitude that it has undertaken from the Ottoman Empire. For this reason, the relations between the two states have continued, they have not been interrupted. This situation, which continued behind closed doors, continued in this way until the 44-day Karabakh War, and the Turkey-Azerbaijan rapprochement at the operational level in the Karabakh War turned into a tripartite coordination including Israel. This trio showed the fruits of coordination, especially in the field of intelligence integration, and contributed to the victory in a short time. It has been seen that the Turkey-Azerbaijan rapprochement has been established in a tripartite coordination, including Israel, and that it continues to a large extent efficiently at the operational level.
However, it has been observed by Ankara that many states in the Middle East tend to abandon the policy of not recognizing Israel with the surveillance and encouragement of the USA. Especially the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia (SA) have started to play a leading role in this regard. In this transformation, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and the radical radicalism of HAMAS paved the way for the preliminary opening and were effective in the turn of these countries towards Israel. Moreover, the desire of the oligarchy governing both the SA and the UAE to become a strong capitalist state, the Iranian threat and the ambition to achieve their own geostrategic goals as much as the balances put forward by the USA-Israel allowed, were effective in this initiative. In this way, the USA imposed their complex packages on the SA and the UAE, which included trade, weapons, intermediates and technology transfer. In addition, with this sentence, a reconciliation was reached with Qatar, and it was seen that it could "normalize" in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Niger with successive summits with Israel.
Another important issue is the change of category of states, which used to be seen in the category of "states that support terrorism". For example, Sudan, which decided to recognize Israel, allowed the United States to remove it from the list of "countries that support terrorism". In addition, Morocco, which is the co-chairman of the "Greater Middle East Project", has procured unmanned aerial vehicles from Israel to use in the conflicts it continues in the Western Sahara. UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco…
Let's come to the threatening salvos of Greece, which is backed by the EU(D) in the Eastern Mediterranean, against Turkey, reaching the point of impudence, and the reflections of the "I was shot in the back" chants of the recent anger. The fact that the representatives of the international capital in the region, carrying out Greece's obscure foreign oil and natural gas exploration activities, left the region one after another, is due to the fossil fuel that Europe has become dependent on RF. Unfortunately, the cooperation of the USA and Israel could not diversify Europe in terms of energy supply. After many options, it was finally seen and understood that Turkey is the only safe zone for the transportation of Israel, Qatar, UAE and even SA natural gas and oil to Europe via Turkey. In other words, the blur in the heads has disappeared. As a matter of fact, Turkey's indispensability in the Eastern Mediterranean in terms of energy supply has been inculcated for some time by various international finance experts as follows:
“Turkey should get closer to Israel in order to eliminate its loneliness against the France-Cyprus-Greece-Egypt bloc in the sharing in the Eastern Mediterranean. In this way, it is possible to pass the Eastern Mediterranean Pipeline, which is thought to connect oil and natural gas to Europe and is very expensive, over Turkey.
may be n. But first we need to sign a maritime border agreement with Israel.”
Yes, dear readers, an agreement with Israel should be exchanged first and foremost, similar to the exclusive economic zone agreement signed with Libya in 2019. It is considered that concluding similar agreements with Palestine, Lebanon and Syria at the same time or immediately after this agreement will pave the way for the EEZ agreement with Egypt, which is essential. It is necessary to understand and read the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Turkey on March 9-10, without looking for calves under the ox. The production-employment-export-oriented economy model, which will be mobilized with national resource packages, primarily dictates stability in the region. The expansion of this will be for the welfare of the people, dear readers.
Footnotes
(1) Facts About Israel, Israel's 60th Anniversary edition; https://mfa.gov.il/MFA_Graphics/MFA%20Gallery/Documents%20languages/
Turkish/ISRAIL%20ABOUT%20GERCEKLER.pdf/Access Date 20.02.2022/
(2) News Jerusalem, La ilahe illallah Ibrahim Khalilullah, 25/10/2019; https://
haberkudus.com/page/la-ilahe-illallah-ibrahim-halilullah/14399/Access Date 20.02.2022/
(3) Erhan Nalçacı, “What does Turkey-Israel rapprochement mean?” Sol Tv., 19.12.2020; https://haber.sol.org.tr/yazar/turkiye-israil-yakinlasmasi-ne-anlama-geliyor-21896/
Access Date 20.02.2022/
