Alwaght- Turkey and the Israeli regime always enjoyed solid ties at all levels. These relations deteriorated deceptively in May 2010, when the Israeli regime's Naval Forces stormed the Mavi Marmara ship that was carrying humanitarian aid attempting to break Zionists' blockade over Gaza. This operation killed nine Turkish civilians. Following the incident, Ankara called its ambassador for Tal Aviv, and downgraded its relations with the Occupation regime, in what seemed as a theatrical act.
At first, Turkish Prime Minster, at the time, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has demanded an Israeli regime apology for the incident, compensation to the families of the victims, and lifting of the blockade over Gaza strip. Only pressure laid by US President has managed to convince Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apologize to his Turkish counterpart on March 2013. Netanyahu promised, in his call with Turkish Prime Minister, compensation to the families of the Turkish victims and injured. However, it seems that the Turkish President, who claims that he backs Palestinians and their issues, have dropped his demand that the Israeli regime should lift their blockade.
Such hypocritical acts, by Erdogan’s government and his party, were also observed during the last Israeli regime war on Gaza. During the war, Erdogan continued to slammed and condemned Zionists' aggression against Gazans, without any calls to disrupt the mutually beneficial economic ties.
However, Mavi Marmara ship incident or any other incident, including Khaled Meshaal’s, trip to Turkey, did not affect the economic and military relations between Turkey and the Israeli regime. Data published by Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman, revealed that despite the “Political and Diplomatic fluctuations”, business relations between them are thriving – and continuous growth is expected. The figures from Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) shown that there was a 56 percent increase in exports to the Palestinian occupied region in May 2013 compared to the same month of the previous year. Imports from the Israeli regime shows an increase of 22 percent in May 2013 compared to the data of May 2012.
The trade volume between the two regimes reached approximately $2 billion in the first 5 months of 2013. Even before the formal apology by the Israeli regime's Prime Minister was made, economic relations were blooming. The Turkish-Israeli regime trade volume, which was $3.4 billion in 2008 before the incident, reached $4.4 billion in 2011 to exceed $4 billion in 2012.
The Turkish Economy Ministry displays figures on its webpage about the trade volume with Zionists, revealing that the Occupation State was Turkey’s 18th largest goods export market in 2012, whereas the Israeli regime was Turkey’s 31st largest supplier of goods imports in 2012. These figures change massively by 2014, the Occupation State became the 15th largest goods export market in 2014.
Moreover, the Turkish Economy Ministry data revealed that economic ties between Turkey and Israeli regime flourished mostly during the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), founded by Erdogan. Turkish goods exports to the Occupied Palestinian lands in 2012 were 2.3 billion $ with an increase of 189 % since 2001. Whereas, importing from the Israeli regime increased by 223% since 2001 to reach 1.71 billion $ in 2012.
One of the main areas that Turkey and the Israeli regime cooperate on is the defense technology. Short-term political tensions never negatively affect such a long-term foreign trade contracts. Indeed, despite the fluctuation in the political relationship in the recent years, Turkey has continued its military interactions with the Israeli regime . There have been many military contracts between Turkey and the Israeli regime, but there are new requests for transactions made by Turkey. These new requests include “Ofeq” surveillance satellites and the anti-tactical ballistic missiles “Arrow”. Such transactions require US approval. These deals can strengthen Turkey’s air defense system against tactical ballistic missiles.
