Turkish-Israeli Relations in a Changing Strategic Environment

Turkish-Israeli relations have been at a historic low since the killing of eight Turkish nationals and one Turkish American by the Israeli Defence Forces during the Gaza Flotilla raid in May 2010. While a return to the privileged partnership of the 1990s is unlikely, pragmatic cooperation might re-emerge as a result of the Arab Spring and in particular the Syrian crisis, which are substantially transforming Turkey's and Israel’s strategic environment and are thus creating common interests between the two countries. Insofar as Ankara can also play an important stabilizing role with respect to Israeli-Iranian frictions and Israeli-Egyptian relations, Brussels should coordinate its foreign policy in the region more closely with Turkey’s.

Documento prodotto nell'ambito del progetto Turkey, Europe and the World [5]. Pubbl. in IAI Research Paper 9 [6].