Amid Shared Interests, Israel Signals Compromise in Talks With Turkey to Avert a Clash in Syria - Israel News - Haaretz.com
This week, a spokesperson for Turkey's defense ministry strongly criticized Israel's actions in Syria, even after reports emerged of dialogue between Israeli and Turkish officials in Azerbaijan.
"Israel continues its provocative attacks aimed at undermining Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity under baseless pretexts," the spokesperson claimed.
However, his tone softened later in the statement, as he added that Turkey "invites Israel to act in accordance with the principles of good neighborly relations and to contribute to the stability and security of Syria."
The call for dialogue coincided with a shift in Israel's rhetoric regarding Turkey's presence in Syria.
Initially, a sharply worded statement attributed to a "senior Israeli diplomatic official" declared that Israel would not accept "any changes in the deployment of foreign forces in Syria, particularly the establishment of Turkish bases in the Palmyra region."
Just two hours later, however, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office released a more conciliatory message thanking Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for hosting the talks. The statement noted that the parties had agreed to "continue the dialogue channel to maintain regional security and stability."
The October 7 attack and subsequent war interrupted a thaw in relations between Israel and Turkey after a prolonged and deep freeze due to the Israel Navy's raid on a flotilla near Gaza in 2010.
Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2023, about two weeks before the Gaza war began. They agreed to meet in the coming months, but the plans were scuttled after Erdogan publicly sided with Hamas in its war against Israel.
A billboard on a main street by the Ankara municipality to thank then-PM Erdogan reads: " We are grateful to you " in Ankara, 2013, after Netanyahu apologized to Turkey over the death of nine Turkish citizens on board a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010.Credit: AFP/Adem Altan
The relations continued to deteriorate. A few weeks into the war, then-foreign minister Eli Cohen announced the recall of Israel's ambassador to Turkey, Irit Lillian, who had already been evacuated from the country due to security concerns. Turkey's ambassador to Israel, Sakir Ozkan Torunlar, was recalled to Ankara, but diplomatic relations between the countries were never severed. The Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv and the consulate in East Jerusalem continue to operate, and Israel still provides consular services in Turkey even though the ambassador and consul general are not living in the country.
Cooperation between Jerusalem and Ankara regarding the expulsion to Turkey of some of the Palestinian security prisoners that Israel released in previous deals with Hamas. While coordination on counter-terrorism continues uninterrupted, Erdogan has been a harsh critic of Israel, accusing it of committing genocide in Gaza, likening it to Nazi Germany and recently even wishing for its destruction.
Netanyahu has rarely responded to Erdogan's attacks. In response to a public attack by Erdogan in March 2024, the prime minister claimed Turkey's president "supports the mass murderers and rapists of Hamas, denies the Armenian holocaust, massacres Kurds in his own country and vies for the world record in eliminating and jailing regime opponents and journalists."
But most of Israel's recent verbal attacks on Erdogan have come from foreign ministers: first Israel Katz and later Gideon Sa'ar, who said that the Turkish president's recent call for Israel's destruction had "exposed his antisemitic face."
Turkish President Erdogan, and Syria's interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa at the presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, in February.Credit: Francisco Seco,AP
Soon after the Gaza war began, Turkey, like many other countries, suspended commercial flights to and from Israel due to the risk of missile fire on Ben-Gurion International Airport – and has not resumed them. Private civilian planes, mostly owned by businessmen, continue to arrive in Turkey frequently and regularly. Israeli tourists also continue to travel in Turkey, despite the lack of direct flights, albeit in very modest numbers.
The crisis in the relations deepened after Israel refused to allow Turkey to airdrop humanitarian aid to Gaza in March 2024. In May, Erdogan declared an economic boycott on Israel, halting bilateral trade.
Israeli-Turkish technical talks hosted by Azerbaijan on Wednesday were primarily aimed at preventing a military clash between the two countries. It is likely that as part of the discussions, each side is marking its interests and red lines on the map of Syria, and together, they are trying to formulate a framework that will prevent conflict and perhaps even create a permanent deconfliction mechanism.
A demonstrator holds a placard with portraits of Netanyahu and Erdogan during a protest against moves by the Israeli government to dismiss Attorney General and the head of the internal security agency, at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, in March.Credit: AFP/Jack Guez
Israel and Turkey have many shared interests in Syria, including removing Iran from the area and preventing terrorism by Islamic militants. But whereas Ankara is interested in the stability of Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa's rule in Syria and in the preservation of the country's sovereignty and unity, Israel, including Netanyahu, is moving, with words and actions, to prevent this.
Reuters reported last week that in March, Israel attacked three air bases in Syria where Turkey was considering deploying forces as part of a defense pact with the new government in Damascus. The news agency also reported that a second planned visit to the T4 and Palmyra air bases by Turkish military teams on March 25 was canceled after Israel hit both sites just hours before the teams were scheduled to arrive.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House on Monday.Credit: Saul Loeb/AP
U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the White House and the fall of the Assad regime have forced Israel and Turkey to take concrete steps to negotiate coordination between them. Trump's declaration, in his White House meeting with Netanyahu this week, that he could "solve" any problem Israel has with Syria as long as Netanyahu is "reasonable," signaled that Israel would have to compromise on its demands.
The Prime Minister's Office's announcement on Thursday that a delegation led by National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi met with a parallel Turkish delegation in Azerbaijan, coupled with its conciliatory tone, which emphasized that "Each side presented its interests in the region," suggests that Israel is indeed willing to compromise.