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“Patience and Persistence”: Ambiguous Turkish–Israeli Relations in the 1960s

2022; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/21520844.2022.2146407

2152-0852

Efrat Aviv,

Turkey's Politics and Society

ABSTRACT Turkey’s relationship with the Yishuv, or Jewish community, has been ambiguous since before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Most of the literature features the later years, whereas the 1960s seem to have been forgotten or merely superficially discussed, mostly because the decade is perceived as belonging to the Cold War era, and, in many respects, only a continuation of the previous decade. Drawing primarily on the Israeli and Turkish State Archives and bulletins from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this article examines Turkish–Israeli relations during this decade and argues contrary to the prevailing view that the crisis during the deterioration of relations was not a result of the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or the rise of the then Turkish Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel’s government, but rather represented a conscious shift in Turkey’s foreign policy that sacrificed its relations with Israel, arguably for more urgent interests such as strengthening ties with the Arabs.KEYWORDS: 1967 Arab–Israeli WarIsraelIsraeli–Turkish relationsSüleyman DemirelTurkey Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1 The affinity between the Ottoman Empire and Zionism has been discussed by several scholars. There are different approaches addressing whether the Young Turks were pro- or anti-Zionist. One notable conspiratorial view asserts that the Young Turks were Zionists, whether openly or secretly. According to its adherents the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), Zionists, and the Dönme, or Jewish converts to Islam who secretly retained their faith in Judaism, were behind the 1908 Revolution, which the CUP initiated against Sultan Abdülhamid II to punish him for refusing to accede to Theodor Herzl’s requests concerning granting a charter to allow Jews to settle in Palestine. The CUP held secret meetings in the Freemason lodges in Salonika, where most of the members were allegedly Jewish. Furthermore, the circumstance that Emmanuel Carasso, an Ottoman, Jewish parliamentarian, was a member of the delegation that announced the abdication of the sultan, allegedly proves the existence of a “Zionist scam.” This interpretation was common among Turkish and Arab politicians and journalists, as well as in some government circles, in the years before World War I. Likewise, the generation that followed Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s passing embraced this view and it endures even today as part of an ongoing trend that clings to a selective memory concerning Abdülhamid II and that vilifies the Young Turks. See Efrat Aviv, Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism in Turkey: From Ottoman Rule to AKP (London: Routledge, 2017), 72–3.2 Tuba Ünlü Bilgiç and Bestami S. Bilgiç, “Kemalist Turkey and the Palestinian Question, 1945–1948,” Middle Eastern Studies 56, no. 3 (2020): 427.3 From its formation in 1923, Turkey had been pro-Western and considered itself a European country with a Middle Eastern geography. Turkish President Celal Bayar (1950–1960) expressed the impossibility of maintaining neutrality between the East and West and attributed the problems of the Arab world to not facing that reality. See Orna Almog and Ayşegül Sever, “Hide and Seek? Israeli – Turkish Relations and the Baghdad Pact,” Middle Eastern Studies 53, no. 4 (2017): 610. For more on post-1923 Turkish policy, see Bahri Yılmaz, “Turkey as a Model for the Middle East and North African (MENA) States: Realistic or Wishful Thinking?” in The Depth of Turkish Geopolitics in the AKP’ s Foreign Policy, ed. Alessia Chiriatti et al. (Perugia: Universita per Stranieri di Perugia, 2015), 10–1.4 For more on Turkish-US relations, see Çağrı Erhan, Türk-Amerikan İlişkilerinin Tarihsel Kökenleri (Ankara: İmge Yayınları, 2001); ed. Mustafa Aydin, Çağrı Erhan and Norman Stone, Turkish-American Relations: Past, Present and Future (New York: Routledge, 2003).5 Some scholars claim that Turkey was not only pro-Western, at least in the years discussed here, and that its relations with the Arab states remained subordinate to its commitment to the West in general, but also that Turkish relations with Israel stemmed primarily from Turkey’s commitment to the Western alliance. Strictly domestic strategic and economic considerations came second. See Kemal H. Karpat, “Turkish and Arab – Israeli Relations,” in Turkey’s Foreign Policy in Transition: 1950–1974, ed. Kemal Karpat (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975), 114, 124.6 Bilgiç and Bilgiç, “Kemalist Turkey,” 427–8.7 See the letter of confirmation number 35970/115 in the Ministers Committee of 24 March, 1949 in T.C. Başvekâlet, Kararlar Müdürlüğü, 24/3/1949 tarih ve 3/8942 sayılı Kararname. Kararname. Başbakanlık Cumhuriyet Arşivi (BCA), 030.18.01.02/118.108.3 030_18_01_02_118_108_3.8 Contrary to the common assumption and according to Ekavi Athanassopoulou, in the 1950s, The Turkish government of Adnan Menderes (1950–1960) acted as a faithful ally of the Americans but was far from being merely a US satellite when it came to matters relating to the Middle East. Thus, Turkish-Israeli relations cooled at the start of 1950s and almost had ruptured by the end of 1953. See Athanassopoulou, “Turkey’s Approach toward Israel in the 1950s: Not Merely Following US Policy,” Middle Eastern Studies 53, no. 6 (2017): 899–914.9 Bilgiç and Bilgiç, “Kemalist Turkey,” 427–8.10 Joshua Walker, “Turkey and Israel’s Relationship in the Middle East,” Mediterranean Quarterly 17, no. 4 (2006): 62.11 Cengiz Günay, “Turkey’s Changing Role After the Cold War: From Ideational to Civilizational Geopolitics,” in ed. Daniel S. Hamilton and Kristina Spohr, Exiting the Cold War, Entering a New World (Washington: John Hopkins, 2019), 464–6.12 Alon Liel, Turkey: Military, Islam and Politics 1970–2000 (Tel Aviv: HaKibbutz HaMeuchad, 1999), 172. Relations between Turkey and American Jews or the Turkish Jewish community are beyond the scope of this study. All the same, it should be mentioned that Jewish US senators helped Israel’s interests vis-à-vis Turkey. For example, Israeli diplomats asked a Jewish senator to help prevent the opening of an Arab League office in Ankara. Yet, some Israeli diplomats opposed Jewish lobbying because they feared that it would harm public opinion toward Turkey in the US and that Israel would not benefit enough from such efforts. To the Israeli government, Washington, from the office, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, June 30, 1966; to the delegate, Ankara, from the Western Europe Director, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, June 24, 1966. All cited documents sourced from the Israel State Archives (ISA) were written in Hebrew/English and rarely in French or Turkish. Some scholars used the term “Arab Department,” because it erroneously appears in Israeli Foreign Ministry documents in the ISA. There was no Arab Department. The acronym MA’AR (מע’ר in Hebrew) refers to the Western Europe Section, to which Turkey belonged.13 Liel, Turkey, 172.14 Ayhan Aktar and Soli Özel, “Turkish Attitudes vis-à-vis the Zionist Project,” CEMOTI (Cahiers d’Etudes sur la Méditerranée Orientale et le Monde Turco-Iranien 28 (1999): 139. Aktar and Özel nonetheless claim that American Jewry was fully conscious of Turkey’s poor wartime record concerning its minorities. In fact, some American Jews held Turkey accountable for the implementation and consequences of the Capital Levy, which targeted minority communities with high taxes, and used their influence to put pressure on the American government to get Turkey to own up to its wrongdoings. Ibid; and Alon Liel, Turkey: Military, Islam and Politics 1970–2000 (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz HaMeuchad,1999), 172.15 George E. Gruen, “Dynamic Progress in Turkish-Israeli Relations,” Israel Affairs 1, no. 4 (1995): 44.16 İsmet İnönü was a Turkish general and statesman, as well as the first Prime Minister PM of Turkey in 1923–1924. He returned to the latter position in 1925–1937 and 1961 to 1965, as was the Republic’s second president from 1938 to 1950.17 Murat Kasapsaraçoğlu, “Harmonization of Turkey’s Political, Economic and Military Interests in the 1950s: Reflections on Turkey’s Middle East Policy,” Turkish Studies 16, no. 3 (2015): 338.18 Amikam Nachmani, “Middle East Listening Post: Eliyahu Sasson and the Israeli Legation in Turkey, 1949–1952,” Studies in Zionism 6, no. 2 (1985): 265.19 Ibid.20 Ofra Bengio, The Turkish-Israeli Relationship: Changing Ties of Middle Eastern Outsiders (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 104.21 Michael B. Bishku, “How Has Turkey Viewed Israel?” Israel Affairs 12, no. 1 (2006): 181.22 M. Sasson’s lecture in the head of delegation’s chief conference in Zurich, Sept. 28, 1962. ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72.23 Noa Schonmann, “Back-Door Diplomacy: The Mistress Syndrome in Israel’s Relations with Turkey, 1957–1960,” in Israel’s Clandestine Diplomacies, ed. Clive Jones and Tore T. Petersen (London: Hurst and Company, 2013), 98.24 Mahmut Bali Aykan, “The Palestinian Question in Turkish Foreign Policy from the 1950s to the 1990s,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 25, no. 1 (1993): 93.25 Eylem Yılmaz and Pinar Bilgin, “Constructing Turkey’s ‘Western’ Identity during the Cold War: Discourses of the Intellectuals of Statecraft,” International Journal 61, no. 1 (2005): 465.26 The “opium issue” also manifested the friction between the US and Turkey in these years. See: Aylın Güney, “Anti-Americanism in Turkey: Past and Present,” Middle Eastern Studies 44, no. 3 (2008): 472–3.27 The Turkish Foreign Ministry did not perceive the conflict over Cyprus as a singular or local problem, but rather saw it as a part of the Megali Idea promoted by the Greeks. To the Western Europe Director, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, Feb. 3, 1966.28 Philip Robins, Suits and Uniforms: Turkish Foreign Policy since the Cold War (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2003), 117–24; Michael A. Reynolds, Echoes of Empire: Turkey’ s Crisis of Kemalism and the Search for an Alternative Foreign Policy (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 2012), iii–33; Nicole and Hugh Pope, Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey (New York, NY: Overlook Press, 2004), 109–25; Ahmet Sozen, Reflections on the Cyprus Problem: A Compilation of Recent Academic Contributions (Northern Cyprus: Eastern Mediterranean University Press, 2007); and Joseph S. Joseph, “Cyprus: Domestic Ethnopolitical Conflict and International Relations,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 15, no. 3–4 (2009): 376–97.29 Çağlar Keyder, “Social Change and Political Mobilization in the 1960s,” in Turkey in Turmoil: Social Change and Political Radicalization during the 1960s, ed. Berna Pekesen (Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2020), 20; For anti-Americanism in Turkey, see Aylın Güney, “Anti-Americanism in Turkey: Past and Present.” Middle Eastern Studies 44, no. 3 (2008): 471–87; and Tuba Ünlü Bilgiç, “The Roots of Anti-Americanism in Turkey 1945–1960,” Bilig-Turk DunyasI Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 72 (2015): 251–80.30 UN General Assembly Resolution on Cyprus 2077 (XX), http://www.hri.org/Cyprus/Cyprus_Problem/UNdocs/gad2077.html (accessed June 1, 2020).31 https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/660053?ln=en (accessed Nov. 1, 2020).32 Aykan, “The Palestinian Question,” 94.33 Ercan Yılmaz, “Turkey-Israel Relations in the Post-Cold War Era,” Yönetim ve Ekonomi Araştırmaları Dergisi 6, no. 10 (2008): 163; and Jacob Abadi, “Israel and Turkey: From Covert to Overt Relations,” Journal of Conflict Studies 15, no. 2 (1995). https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/JCS/article/view/4548 (accessed June 2, 2020).34 Ofra Bengio, The Turkish – Israeli Relationship: Changing Ties of Middle Eastern Outsiders (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 55.35 Ibid., 49.36 Ibid., 54.37 Levi Eshkol was Israeli Prime Minister between 1963 and his death in 1969.38 Schonmann, “Back-Door Diplomacy,” 98–9; and Suha Bolukbasi, “Behind the Turkish-Israeli Alliance: A Turkish View,” Journal of Palestine Studies 29, no. 1 (1999): 23–4.39 Ibid.40 To the Director-General, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, Jan. 5, 1966.41 Ibid.42 Bengio, The Turkish-Israeli Relationship, 48–9.43 M. Sasson’s lecture at the Heads of Legations conference in Zurich, 28 Sept. 1962. ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72.44 Cemal Gürsel (1895–1966) was a Turkish army general who became the fourth President of Turkey after a coup in 1960.45 To the Western Europe Section, Hamisrad Jerusalem, from the Israeli government, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000kqf7, Oct. 27, 1961. Israel also congratulated the new Turkish government: “A New Conspiracy against the New Government in Turkey Was Discovered,” Herut, May 31, 1960.46 Bengio, The Turkish-Israeli Relationship, 48.47 Aykan, “The Palestinian Question,” 94–5.48 Ibid.49 The 1963 Ankara air collision occurred on Feb. 1, 1963 over Ankara, when Middle East Airlines Flight 265, completing a flight from Cyprus, came in for landing and collided in the air with a Turkish Air Force Douglas C-47A. Both planes fell directly onto the city below them. For information on the collision, see Yaşar Sökmensüer, “Hiç bir Ankaralı’ nın unutamadığı kaza,” [The accident that no Ankara inhabitant forgets]. Hürriyet, Oct. 6, 2013, https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/hic-bir-ankarali-nin-unutamadigi-kaza-22299909 (accessed Aug. 12, 2019).50 ISA RG MFA to the Western Europe directorate, from the Consul General, Istanbul, ISA-mfa-mfa-0009k59, Jan. 31, 1963; ISA RG MFA to the Western Europe directorate, from Consul General, Istanbul, ISA-mfa-mfa-0009k59, Dec. 10, 1962.51 Demirel served as prime minister seven times nonconsecutively between 1965 and 1993 and was president from 1993 to 2000.52 Quoted in Bishku, “How Has Turkey Viewed Israel,” 184. Before Demirel’s government came to power, Israel treated Turkey’s relations with Africa positively. For the Israelis, the fact that Turkey served as a role model for Africa as a country that had liberated itself from the “cables of Islam” and preferred development to stagnation so that it might provide an example to African and Muslim countries with an “ethical basis” for taking similar steps toward modernization. This could open the road for similar Israeli efforts in Africa as part of widening the Jewish state’s peripheral plan for cultivating friendly relations with other countries. Israel believed that this positive approach in Africa had the potential to weaken Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser’s efforts to gain support in Africa and offered Turkey assistance and cooperation in several fields in Africa. The then Israeli Foreign Minister, Golda Meir, thus encouraged her Turkish guests to broaden their activities in Africa. See M. Sasson’s lecture at the Heads of Legations conference in Zurich, ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72, Sept. 28, 1962; to Western Europe Section, East Africa Section, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000yj0x, Sept. 25, 1963. The Israeli diplomats, despite their endeavors, doubted Israel’s ability to improve Turkey’s position in Africa. To the Western Europe Section, East Africa Section, from the Israeli ambassador, Accra, ISA-mfa-Political-000yj0x, Sept. 11, 1963.53 Quoted in Bishku, “How Has Turkey Viewed Israel?” fn. 38.54 Ibid., 184.55 ISA RG MFA to Victor Elishar, from the legation, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72, Feb. 22, 1966.56 Bengio, The Turkish-Israeli Relationship, 61.57 ISA RG MFA to the Western Europe Director, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-0013v4b. Feb. 8, 1966.58 Ibid.59 Ibid.60 Ibid.61 ISA RG MFA to Israeli government agency for international cooperation. (MASHAV) from Western Europe directorate, ISA-mfa-mfa-0009k59, Nov. 29, 1962.62 İhsan Sabri Çağlayangil was an acting president of Turkey in 1980 and Minister of Foreign Affairs three times in the 1960s and 1970s.63 Bengio, The Turkish-Israeli Relationship, 65.64 Karpat, “Turkish and Arab – Israeli Relations,” 129–30.65 Bengio, The Turkish-Israeli Relationship, 56. The Arab states were aware of Turkey’s vulnerability and pressured Ankara on its relations with Israel making their support on the Cyprus issue conditional upon Turkey’s severing ties with Israel.66 M. Sasson’s lecture at the Heads of Legations conference in Zurich, Sept. 28, 1962. ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72.67 Dışişleri Bakanlığı Belleteni, sayı 20, Ankara, May 31, 1966, (May 23, 1966), 84.68 ISA RG MFA to M. Gazit, M. Michael et al., Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from A. Halevi M. Sasson’s lecture at the Heads of Legations conference in Zurich, ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72, Feb. 22, 1962.69 ISA RG MFA to the Western Europe Section, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72, Feb. 2, 1966.70 Daily Report, Foreign Radio Broadcasts, 101–5, 1966, https://books.google.co.il/books?id=Xuo_fobfCikC&pg=RA8-PA12&lpg=RA8-PA12&dq=TURKISH+MINISTER+OF+FOREIGN+AFFAIRS+IN+IRAQ+1966&source=bl&ots=NinuZd-GpV&sig=ACfU3U2dL1ryTpiYE-vljJiKmHFxYfdbeA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiv0tPumKTqAhVjw8QBHaK5CycQ6AEwAnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=TURKISH%20MINISTER%20OF%20FOREIGN%20AFFAIRS%20IN%20IRAQ%201966&f=false.71 ISA RG MFA to Mr. Viktor Elishar, vice director of the Western Europe Section, from the legation, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-0013v4b, May 31, 1966.72 Dışişleri Bakanlığı Belleteni, sayı 20, Ankara, May 31, 1966, (May 23, 1966), 84–5; ISA RG MFA to the ministry in Jerusalem, from the Israeli government, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-0013v4b, May 24, 1966. Dışişleri Bakanlığı Belleteni is the official bulletin of the Turkish FA.73 To the Western Europe Section, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-0013v5d, June 21, 1966.74 ISA RG MFA to the Western Europe Section, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72, April 20, 1966.75 To the Western Europe Section, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-0013v5d, June 21, 1966.76 ISA RG MFA to the Western Europe Section, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72, April 20, 1966.77 Amikam Nachmani, Turkey: Facing a New Millennium (New York: Manchester University Press, 2003), 14.78 The Hatay region, located on the Mediterranean coast north of Latakia (Ar. al-Lādqīyah), was originally a part of the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon under the aegis of the League of Nations after the First World War. Nevertheless, Turkey sought to obtain the “lost” area and its large Turkish-speaking community. In 1936, the Turkish government began to push for Hatay’s “reunification” with Turkey. The French decision to hand it over to Ankara three years later came in tandem with a Turkish–French treaty guaranteeing Turkish “friendship” during the Second World War. Syria refused to recognize the border that separated Hatay from Syria. Syrian governments brought up the issue openly only in times of particularly tense relations with Ankara, such as during the 1958–1961 United Arab Republic, when Syria was part of an Arab-nationalist union with Egypt. ISA RG MFA to the Western Europe Section, from the legation, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-0013v4b, Feb. 2, 1966.79 ISA RG MFA to the director general, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-0013v4b, Jan. 5, 1966; ISA RG MFA to the Western Europe Section, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-0013v4b, Jan. 5, 1966.80 Turkish-Israeli relations, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, June 28, 1966. June 26, 1966.81 ISA RG MFA to the Western Europe Section, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72, April 20, 1966.82 Dışişleri Bakanlığı Belleteni, sayı 16, Ankara, Oct. 31, 1966 (Oct. 24, 1966), 79.83 ISA RG MFA to the Ministry in Jerusalem, from the Israeli government, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72, Sept. 8, 1966.84 ISA RG MFA Western Europe director, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-0013v4b, July 19, 1966.85 Unlike what some scholars claimed, King Faisal did not suggest an Islamic alliance or bloc. This erroneous assumption appears, for example, in Şaban Halis Çaliş, Turkey’ s Cold War: Foreign Policy and Western Alignment in the Modern Republic (London: I.B. Tauris, 2017).86 ISA RG MFA to the Office in Jerusalem, from MMISRAEL-Israeli government, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72, Sept. 8, 1966.87 To the Western Europe Directorate, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-mfa-0009k59, Sept. 3, 1962.88 To Bendor from Sasson, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-0013v5d, June 19, 1962.89 To the Western Europe Section, from Ben-Yaacov ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, Sept. 19, 1966.90 To Mr. V. Elishar (Deputy Director in Western Europe Section), from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, June 24, 1966.91 “Shazar Will Postpone His Reply to Makarios,” HaTzofe, Aug. 14, 1964 [in Hebrew].92 Jacob Abadi, Israel’s Quest for Recognition and Acceptance in Asia: Garrison State Diplomacy (London: Frank Cass, 2004), 33 fn. 61; Bengio, The Turkish-Israeli Relationship, 58.93 To the Western Europe director, from Sasson, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, June 24, 1966; to the delegate, Ankara, from the Western Europe Section, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, May 6, 1966.94 Bengio, The Turkish-Israeli Relationship, 64.95 To the Western Europe Section, from Sasson, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x 27, Feb. 1966; To the Western Europe Section, from Sasson, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, Feb. 7, 1966.96 Ministry director-general consulting regarding Turkish affairs, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, May 4, 1966.97 To Mr. V. Elishar (deputy director of the Western Europe Section), from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, June 24, 1966.98 To the delegate, Ankara, from the Western Europe Director, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, May 10, 1966.99 To the delegate in Ankara, Sasson, from A. Lourie, deputy director-general of the MFA, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, March 4, 1966. Moshe Tov was director of the Latin America Section in the foreign ministry 1954–1957.100 Ibid.101 To the delegate, Ankara, from the Western Europe Section, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, Feb. 13, 1966.102 Ministry director-general consulting regarding Turkish affairs, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, May 4, 1966.103 To the Western Europe Section director, the embassy in Bern, from the Western Europe Section, ISA-mfa-Political-0013v3y, June 28, 1966. Israel mentioned that both the United Arab Republic (1958–1971) and Iraq were pro-Turkey. Arab states had either supported the Turks or abstained from UN voting: Turkish–Israeli relations, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, June 28, 1966. On June 26, 1966, Sasson mentioned that other Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan, were dissatisfied with Turkey’s foreign policy. To Aron Remez, Israeli ambassador to London, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, June 27, 1966.104 Turkey resisted Egyptian and Saudi pressure to sever relations with Israel during the 1960s and 1970s, but bilateral cooperation continued unabated. See Umut Uzer, “The Downfall of Turkish–Israeli relations: A Cold Peace between Former Strategic Allies,” Israel Affairs 26, 5 (2020): 688.105 To Mr. Gazit, the ministry’s consultant, from the ambassador, London, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, June 28, 1966.106 To Sasson, the delegate, Ankara, from the Western Europe director, ISA-mfa-Political-000yj0x, Jan. 6, 1963.107 Karpat, “Turkish and Arab-Israeli Relations,” 127. Karpat claims that Demirel’s pro-Arab policy was not undertaken to please his conservative rural constituency, which supposedly had religious sympathies for the Arabs. Instead, he claimed that Turkish rapprochement with the Arabs was a logical step that was undertaken to end isolation and seek support for its Cyprus policy among Third World nations.108 Dışişleri Bakanlığı Belleteni, sayı 33, Ankara, June 1967, (June 5, 1967), 14.109 Ibid., sayı 34, Ankara, June 1967, (July 4, 1967), 16.110 Liel, Turkey, 173.111 Dışişleri Bakanlığı Belleteni, sayı 33, Ankara, June 1967 (June 14, 1967), s. 24, 28. It should be mentioned that Israeli intelligence intercepted a conversation between Nasser and King Hussein in which they agreed to blame US and British aircraft for participating in the war by aiding Israel. This was done in order to distract attention from the failure of the Arab militaries that had occurred in the wake of Operation Moked, which destroyed most of the Arab airplanes in the first couple hours of the war. It is conceivable that the Turks were also deceived. See Eli Zeira, Myth versus Reality: The October 1973 War: Failures and Lessons, (Tel Aviv: Miskal by Yedioth Ahronoth and Chemed Books, 2004), 270.112 Liel, Turkey, 171.113 SA RG MFA Turkish journalism on the crisis in the Middle East. ISA-mfa-Political-000mqig, June 17, 1967.114 SA RG MFA to the ministry in Jerusalem, from the Israeli government, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000mqig, June 7,1967.115 Ibid.116 SA RG MFA Turkish journalism on the crisis in the Middle East ISA-mfa-Political-000mqig, June 17, 1967.117 SA RG MFA to the ministry in Jerusalem, from the Israeli government, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000MQIF, June 30, 1967.118 SA RG MFA to the delegate, Ankara, from the Western Europe Section, ISA-mfa-Political-000MQIF, July 2, 1967.119 SA RG MFA to the ministry in Jerusalem, from the Israeli government, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000mqig, June 8, 1967.120 To the Western Europe Section, from Sasson, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, May 11, 1966.121 Cited in Bishku, “How Has Turkey Viewed Israel?” 184.122 ISA RG MFA to the ministry in Jerusalem, from the Israeli government, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000mqig, July 2, 1967.123 ISA RG MFA to the Western Europe Directorate, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000MQIF, June 30, 1967; SA RG MFA to the ambassador in Paris from the Western Europe Section, ISA-mfa-Political-000MQIF, July 16, 1967. Feridun Cemal Erkin indirectly suggested Turkey’s mediation in an off-the-record interview with Haaretz journalist Zeev Katz. See ISA RG MFA to the Western Europe Directorate, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-mfa-0009k59, Sept. 3, 1962.124 George E. Gruen, “Dynamic Progress in Turkish-Israeli Relations,” Israel Affairs 1, no. 4 (1995): 47.125 See, for example: Dışişleri Bakanlığı Belleteni, sayı 37, Ankara, Oct. 1967 (Oct. 26, 1967), s. 60–2.126 Abadi, “Israel and Turkey.”127 Cited in Bolukbasi, “Behind the Turkish-Israeli Alliance,” 26. It is hard to tell whether this shift was only against the US or if other interests were involved. Karpat believed that it was the result of closer ties between the Soviets and the Turks, who perceived Russo–Turkish relations as part of the general political picture in the Middle East. After 1967, Turkish–Soviet communiqués included references to the Middle East, usually supporting the Arab viewpoint. Karpat, “Turkish and Arab–Israeli Relations,” 130–1.128 Abadi, “Israel and Turkey.”129 ISA-mfa-Political-0013v4b, from the Western Europe Section to the legation, Ankara, Dec. 19, 1967.130 Ibid.; SA RG MFA to the Israeli government, New York-Washington, from the ministry, Jerusalem, ISA-mfa-Political-000MQIF, July 16, 1967.131 Aykan, “The Palestinian Question,” 95; Bolukbasi, “Behind the Turkish-Israeli Alliance,” 26.132 ISA RG MFA to the Western Europe Section, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-000pe72, Feb. 2, 1966; ISA RG MFA to Ministry of Foreign Affairs secretary-general from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-Political-0013v4b, Jan. 5, 1966.133 Dışişleri Bakanlığı Belleteni, sayı 37, Ankara, Oct. 1967, (Oct. 3, 1967), s. 32.134 Karpat, “Turkish and Arab–Israeli Relations,” 131.135 Aykan, “The Palestinian Question,” 95–6.136 Walker, “Turkey and Israel’s Relationship,” 61.137 Turkey’s attempts to keep the relationship secret led Israeli PM David Ben-Gurion to remark, “The Turks have always treated us as one treats a mistress, and not as a partner in an openly avowed marriage.” From this point on and during the Cold War, Israeli–Turkish relations were known as “the mistress syndrome.” Quoted in Amikam Nachmani, Israel, Turkey and Greece: Uneasy Relations in the East Mediterranean (London: Frank Cass, 1987), 75. For more on the mistress syndrome and the historical and academic usage of the term, see Schonmann, “Back-Door Diplomacy,” 266, fn. 61.138 Gruen provided an example: In the aftermath of the Iraqi coup that overthrew the pro-Western monarchy, the US encouraged Turkey and Israel to cooperate more closely to combat Soviet-backed communist and Nasserist subversion of the region. Ben-Gurion secretly flew to Ankara to discuss closer strategic cooperation with his counterpart, Adnan Menderes. To prevent leaks to the press, Turkish Foreign Ministry staff were recruited to serve as waiters at the official dinner: Gruen, “Dynamic Progress,” 41.139 Cited in Schonmann, “Back-Door Diplomacy,” 99.140 Ibid., 100–1.141 Kılıç Bugra Kanat, “Turkish–Israeli Relations during the Cold War: The Myth of a Long ‘Special Relationship,’” Israel Studies Review 31, no. 2 (2016): 130.142 To V. Elishar/the Western Europe Section, from Sasson, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, Feb. 15, 1966.143 To the Western Europe Director, from the delegate, Ankara, ISA-mfa-IsraeliMissionsAbroad-000rw7x, Feb. 3, 1966.Additional informationNotes on contributorsEfrat AvivEfrat Aviv is a senior lecturer in the Department of General History at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University. Additionally, she is a fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. She was a fellow at the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism from 2012 to 2015. She is an expert in Turkish religious movements, but she also writes about Israeli-Turkish relations, Antisemitism in Turkey, and Ottoman-Turkish Jewry. Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism in Turkey: From Ottoman Rule to the AKP is her most recent book, which was published in 2017 by Routledge.