Turkey's hypocritical stance towards Israel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to suspend diplomatic relations with the UAE following a breakthrough deal between the Gulf state and Israel, without making reference to any downgrading of its own diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv

Turkey has a hypocritical stance, slamming the UAE for discussing normalizing relations with Israel. Although it is a strong advocate of the Palestinians as far as Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip and West Bank are concerned, Turkey continues to maintain its diplomatic ties with Israel.

Analysts believe this rhetoric is part of a deliberate choice by Ankara to distract from economic failure at home.

The deal between Israel and UAE requires that Israel suspend its planned annexation of parts of the West Bank in exchange for a normalization of ties with Abu Dhabi. In response, the Palestinian Authority announced the “immediate” recall of its ambassador to the UAE.

Turkey has had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1949. Despite deep mistrust between the two countries, especially since the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010, when Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish aid boat and killed ten Turkish activists, bilateral trade between two countries reached to $6 billion last year. Israel is among Turkey’s top 10 export markets.

Hamas is listed by the US and the EU as a terrorist group, but Ankara considers it a legitimate political movement. According to reports, Turkey granted citizenship to seven senior operatives of Hamas.

Experts believe Turkey’s ruling party, which supports Hamas and is growing closer to Iran’s regime, only maintains its current relations with Israel because of Washington and because of its desire to exploit NATO and the EU.