The coming of an ice age? Turkish-Israeli relations since 2002

Abstract

Turkish-Israeli relations, which had reached the level of strategic cooperation by the end of the 1990s, started to decline after 2000 and Turkey's approach to Israel has changed considerably as a result of huge transformations in international, regional, and Turkish domestic politics. The Israeli Operation Cast Lead in December 2008-January 2009 and the "One Minute" incident at Davos in January 2009, however, initiated a continuous crisis situation, which reached its peak in the May-June 2010 Mavi Marmara crisis. This article aims to analyze the causes of change in the Turkish perception of Israel by focusing on three key factors: Justice and Development Party ideology and actors, power vacuum in the Middle East, and Turkish foreign policy discourse of grandeur. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.