The new normalization necessitates a paradigm shift in the nature of relations. The international system, the region and Turkey witnessed major transformations in the last 10 years which will impact Turkish-Israeli relations.

The disagreement between Turkey and the US on the Syrian issue and the coup d’état in Egypt are contributing factors to increased criticism of Turkey in Washington.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan paying a visit to the United States attended a conference, “Global Order and Justice in the 21st Century” organized by SETA in Washington D.C.

Extrication of the Turkish-Israeli relationship from the US-Turkey relationship represented a structural change.

The final leg of support for the Syrian Ba’ath regime’s geopolitical comfort zone was the political climate generated by the other dictatorships in the area.

The Arab uprisings in early 2011 provided the US and Turkey with an opportunity and a necessity to discover new forms of cooperation and policy coordination due to the urgency for action on the ground.

Following the leak of the Palmer Report to the New York Times, Turkey declared that it considered the report null and reduced its diplomatic relations with Israel to the second Secretary level.

 SETA-DC PANEL DISCUSSION  Chair:     Kadir Ustun, SETA-DC   Speakers: Daniel Levy, New America Fnd. Stevn A. Cook, Council on F.R. Erol Cebeci,SETA-DC  Date: September 19, 2011 Monday  Venue: SETA-DC, Washington

Despite a historical affinity between Israelis, Turks, strong interaction between people, NGOs, think-tanks was never established, that’s exactly what we need.

Israel so preoccupied with who should stay in power in Turkey, that they cannot read what is really happening in Turkish domestic politics.

On May 31, 2010, Israeli commandos stormed a passenger ship, the Mavi Marmara, the largest boat of a flotilla of six boats which were carrying 10000 tons of humanitarian aid to besieged Gaza, in international high waters. The operation left 9 activists dead and over 30 activists wounded. The flotilla attack started a new trend for Turkish-Israeli relations. For the first time in history, Turkish citizens were directly exposed to Israeli aggression. In this sense, the attack constitutes a break in Turkish-Israeli relations. It is now not only Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians that will shape the nature of Turkish-Israeli relations, more than anything else, but it is Israel’s steps towards salvaging bilateral relations by reassuring the Turkish nation and state.

Since 2000, relations regained its historically fluctuating pattern and this continues to characterize the nature of relations between Turkey and Israel today. When Turkish-Israeli relations were formalized in March 28, 1949, Turkey became the first Muslim state to recognize the state of Israel; however, relations were kept at a minimum level for decades. From 1949 to the early 1990s, relations were very fragile and followed a fluctuating pattern. This pattern was replaced by the “honeymoon years” starting from the late 1990’s. The late 1990s marked by the soft coup of 1997, also known as the “February 28 Process,” constituted an exception in the pattern and level of relations between Turkey and Israel. Since 2000, relations regained its historically fluctuating pattern and this continues to characterize the nature of relations between Turkey and Israel today.