Less than three years ago, Shimon Peres addressed the Turkish Grand National Assembly - Turkey's parliament - in Ankara.
It was the first time an Israeli president had addressed the legislators in a Muslim country, a gesture that spoke a lot about the extraordinary relationship between Israel and Turkey, a relationship that goes back to the beginning of Turkish recognition of the Jewish state in 1949.
Unique among Muslim countries in the region, Turkey has strong trade relations with Israel.
The Turkish military to buy weapons from Israel and train its armed forces, and in 2008 Turkey hosted more than half a million Israeli tourists, making it their preferred overseas destination.
What went wrong?
Over the past 18 months, the two countries reels from a diplomatic crisis to another, culminating in furious Turkish reaction to Israel's failed attempt to block the convoy from reaching Gaza.
All military cooperation has been frozen, and Israeli tourists to cancel planned trips to Turkey.
And now thousands of Turks are furious siege to the Israeli consulate in Istanbul with a chorus of "Allaahu Akhbar" and posters with poisonous messages of hate against Israel.
"We should cancel all our appointments," said a young man named Bünyamin told me. "Israel can never be our friend - this is our biggest enemy."
Events in Israel and the Palestinian territories is part of the explanation.
No comments:
Post a Comment