For the most part, the “anti-Israeli” rhetoric of Erdoğan, his alleged red lines, and colorful insults against Israel are nothing more than populist publicity stunts. Meanwhile, both the military and economic ties have been booming between Turkey and Israel since the AKP came to power in 2002.
This high-level relationship never stopped in any period even despite the Israeli attacks on Gaza that resulted with thousands of Palestinian casualties. Here are some examples :
On July 19, 2003, the AKP had issued a law to make the Israeli land purchases in Turkey easier.
On June 13, 2004, Erdoğan openly supported Israel and blamed Yasser Arafat for “posing an obstacle to peace” at a conference he attended. The former PM of Israel Ehud Barak, US congress member Jane Harman, and Prof. Bernard Lewis were also among the participants of this conference.
The AKP allowed Israel to commemorate Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, for the first time in the history of Turkish Republic. On Dec. 6, 2004, the Israeli Embassy organized a conference at the National Library in Ankara, Turkey’s capital.
On May 1, 2005, the deal on Heron UAVs was signed by Erdoğan in Israel. In addition to this $200 million worth agreement, a protocol regarding the modernization of M60 tanks, and meetings for other 17 different military projects were materialized.
On Sept. 6, 2007, Israel used the Turkish air space while striking a hidden nuclear reactor in Syria. Erdoğan also blamed the ones who objected to the chartering of minefields on the Syrian-Turkish border to an Israeli company for 49 years with “anti-semitism”.
When Erdoğan said “one minute” and took on Shimon Peres at the Davos Summit in Jan. 2009, the parliamentary Turkish-Israeli friendship group consisted of 361 members, while the Palestinian one had only 60 members.
The AKP supported Israel’s OECD membership two weeks before the Mavi Marmara ‘crisis’ when Tel Aviv was threatning to attack the flotilla.
In June 2010, at the peak of the flotilla ‘crisis’, it was revealed that the AKP had committed the cyber security of Turkey’s state institutions to the Israeli company Check Point.
In June 2016, after reaching an agreement with Israel, Erdoğan criticized the organizers of Mavi Marmara flotilla and stated : “ We always helped Gaza and Palestine until today, and we still do. Did you ask us before taking such a step and getting on that ship? ”
In addition, earlier in 2017, AKP called for the tripling of trade volume between Turkey and Israel from $3.9 to $10 billion within the next 5 years.
After a very successful first quarter in 2017, Turkey’s exports to Israel increased by 20%, while the Israeli exports to Turkey rose by 45%. Turkey’s former energy minister B. Albayrak also visited Israel in 2017 to conclude an agreement for the building of a natural gas pipeline from Israel to Turkey.