Key Takeaways:
- In 1949, Turkey was the first Muslim-majority state to recognize Israel. However, 75 years later, Turkey is one of the Jewish state’s chief antagonists in the Middle East. What has caused this shift in relations between the two countries?
- The souring of Turkey-Israel relations is mainly due to Turkish President Erdogan’s personal animus toward the Jewish people and his regional ambitions, hoping to make Turkey a hegemonic power in the Middle East.
- While Erdogan’s expansionist plans might come into direct conflict with Israel’s security needs, they are also a concern for all Middle Eastern states that do not wish to exist under the thumb of an authoritarian power.
Days before Turkey hosted a summit of its NATO allies, the Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, caused a minor uproar when he referred to the Jewish state as a “burden that humanity can no longer bear” and called for international sanctions on Israel.
While his implicitly genocidal remarks were condemned by both the Israeli and German governments, there was nothing new in the sentiment that stood behind Fidan’s words. Since the early 2000s, Turkey has antagonized Israel in both words and actions, undoing the state of relations between the two countries that existed for half a century.
So, how did Turkey go from being the first Muslim-majority state to recognize Israel to becoming one of its chief opponents on the world stage?
The fault for this rupture lies squarely at the feet of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose anti-Jewish attitude and regional ambitions have placed Israel squarely in the center of his targeted sights.
Turkey & Israel Before Erdogan
To understand the decline in Israeli-Turkish relations between Israel and Turkey, we first need to take a look at the cordial relations that existed between the two states before Erdogan’s rise to power.
As mentioned above, Turkey recognized the nascent State of Israel in 1949, becoming the first Muslim-majority state to do so.
Despite an initially cool relationship between the two countries, they warmed up by the 1960s, when Turkey and Israel entered into trade agreements and increased cooperation in the tourism and agricultural sectors.
The Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973 both put Israel-Turkey relations under strain, with the diplomatic ties between Ankara and Jerusalem even being downgraded in the mid-1970s.
However, the 1980s and 1990s saw a surge in the ties between the two Mediterranean states, with greater intelligence and defense cooperation, shared air force training, a boom in bilateral trade (3 billion dollars annually), and a sharp rise in tourism.
This golden era of ties between Turkey and Israel, however, came to a close in the early 2000s with the rise of Islamist strongman Erdogan, first as prime minister (2002) and then later as president (2007).
Turkey & Israel Under Erdogan
With Erdogan’s rise to power and increasing authoritarian control of the Turkish state, Turkey’s relations with Israel have progressively soured.
The first indication of how Israel’s relations with Turkey would change under Erdogan came in 2009, when he confronted Israeli President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos, called him a “murderer,” and then walked out of the meeting.
A year later, Erdogan facilitated the Mavi Marmara flotilla, which confronted the Israeli blockade of Hamas-run Gaza, ending with an IDF interception that resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish activists. This episode saw a downgrading of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Erdogan’s Turkey has not only supported radical activists seeking to confront Israel over its defensive activities, but it has also served as a safe haven for members of the Hamas leadership.
While Israel and Turkey did reconcile following American intervention, the relationship between Jerusalem and Ankara has been on a continuous downward slope since 2018, with Turkey opposing the move of the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and condemning Israel for its defensive actions against violent Palestinian rioters and terrorists. This worsening of relations has also occurred against the backdrop of Erdogan’s Turkey becoming increasingly authoritarian, with the president consolidating more power while simultaneously weakening his domestic opposition.
This straining of the Turkey-Israel relationship has only intensified since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. Erdogan has accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza, praised Hamas as “liberators,” and his government has publicly minimized trade between the two countries.
What Is Behind Erdogan’s Antagonism Toward Israel?
So, why has President Erdogan shifted Turkey away from being a regional partner of Israel to one of its chief antagonists in the Middle East and on the world stage?
There seem to be two leading causes of Erdogan’s anti-Israel posture: His personal animus toward the Jewish people and his regional ambitions.
As an Islamist politician, Erdogan has been influenced by the ideological circle that surrounds him, which is contemptuous of Jews and views the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and establishment of the secular Turkish state as part of a secret Jewish plot.
The existence of Israel as a Jewish state in what is viewed as a traditionally Muslim region only amplifies this dislike and suspicion of Jews.
Aside from Erdogan’s personal ideology, Turkish society has become more open to public expressions of antisemitism in recent years, which has allowed the Turkish strongman to use his public opposition to the Jewish state as a means of garnering more votes among the Turkish public.
Perhaps even more consequential than antisemitism in the worsening of relations between Israel and Turkey are Erdogan’s long-term regional ambitions, which place him in direct confrontation with the Jewish state.
As opposed to other leaders who ruled Turkey before him, Erdogan subscribes to the idea of “neo-Ottomanism,” which aims to position Turkey as a leading force in the Sunni Islamic world.
As the Ottoman Empire controlled much of the Middle East for hundreds of years, Erdogan seeks to return Turkey to this position of power by spreading its influence (and sometimes even its military forces) into neighboring states.
This expansion of Turkey’s role in the Middle East can be seen over the past 10 years, with Turkey sending forces into Iraq to fight ISIS (against the wishes of the Iraqi government), establishing itself militarily in Qatar, extending its influence in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israeli Arab communities, placing a foothold on the Red Sea, and becoming the patron of the new Syrian government since the fall of the Assad regime in 2024.
With the recent diminishment of Iran’s position in the Middle East, Erdogan is even more determined to increase Turkey’s influence in the region and become the new hegemonic power.
So, how do Turkey’s regional ambitions affect its relationship with Israel?
First, Israel’s own security needs can come into direct conflict with Turkey’s desires. This is most clearly seen in Syria, where Israel has established a buffer zone along its border due to its suspicion of the new regime, while Turkey has openly embraced it.
Second, in Erdogan’s view, by becoming increasingly and publicly hostile to the Jewish state, he is leveraging the anti-Israel sentiment of the Arab street to catapult Turkey into being the leading voice of the Muslim world, at the expense of more moderate regimes such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Thus, it appears likely that as Erdogan’s Turkey becomes a growing force in the Middle East and seeks to dominate the region, it will increasingly become more antagonistic toward Israel.
However, as opposed to this remaining a problem for the Jewish state, Turkey’s regional ambitions will likely become a problem for all Middle Eastern states that do not wish to become subservient to one hegemonic power in the region.
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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
