SpooksTurkey exposed Israeli spy network in Iran
Israel and Turkey used to be close allies, but the relationship began to deteriorate in 2003, when Recep Tayyip Erdogan became prime minister after his Islamic party won the parliamentary elections the year before. The relationship reached its low point in 2010, when nine Turks were killed by Israeli commandos on a ship carrying supplies to the Gaza Strip. This was also the year that Hakan Fidan became the head of Milli Istihbarat Teskilati, or MIT, the Turkish intelligence service. Fidan is known for advocating a closer Turkey-Iran relationship – the Wall Street Journal wrote that “he rattled Turkey’s allies by allegedly passing to Iran sensitive intelligence collected by the U.S. and Israel.” Stories now emerge that in early 2012 Turkey deliberately blew the cover of an Israeli spy ring working inside Iran to collect information on Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel and Turkey used to be close allies, but the relationship began to deteriorate in 2003, when Recep Tayyip Erdogan became prime minister after his Islamic party won the parliamentary elections the year before.
The deterioration was slow, accompanied by ups and downs along the way. In September 2007, for example, Turkey permitted Israel Air Force planes to fly over Turkish territory on the their way to destroying a Syrian nuclear reactor being built in northeast Syria.
In mid-December 2008, Erdogan, following extensive mediation efforts, put together an hour-and-a-half 3-way conference call which included Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert, Syria’s president Bashar a-Assad, and Erdogan himself.
The three reached understandings on the outline of an Israel-Syria peace agreement, but before the details of the deal could be worked out, Israel, on 27 December, launched Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli-Turkish relationship was seriously damaged.
Erdogan was furious with Olmert for not alerting Turkey, Israel’s ally, about the planned operation in Gaza. Erdogan argued that despite his Islamist orientation, he was complying with agreements reached between Israel and Turkey before he came to power, and was using Turkey’s considerable political capital in the region to advance reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel and Syria.
Olmert let it be known that it was precisely Erdogan’s Islamist outlook which let Israel not to trust him to keep quiet about the planned attack on Hamas bases in Gaza. Israel was afraid that Erdogam would alert Hamas to the impending attack.
The relationship between Israel and Turkey reached a breaking point in May 2010. A Turkish fundamentalist Islamist group organized a flotilla of eight ships to carry food and medical supplies to Gaza, which was under an Israeli military blockade. One of the ships refused to stop when ordered to do so by the Israeli Navy, and Israeli commandoes boarded the ship, meeting stiff resistance from some of those on board. Nine Turkish citizens on the ship were killed in the skirmishes which ensued.
A UN investigation into the attack, launched at Turkey’s request, exonerated Israel. The UN report said that Israel may have used excessive force in boarding the ship, but that it had every legal right to enforce the blockade.
