The Turkish presidency launched a fierce attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the wake of the trilateral summit between Greece, Cyprus and Israel in Jerusalem, with Ankara raising its tone dangerously and openly accusing Tel Aviv of \u201cgenocide\u201d and \u201cdestabilizing the region\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Behind the rhetorical sharpness, the real background of the Turkish reaction is not only the Trilateral Summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ankara\u2019s Syrian \u201cimpasse\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The developments in Syria play a decisive role in Turkey\u2019s irritation. About a year ago, Ankara believed that the fall of the Assad regime would allow it to establish a military presence, develop weapons systems and acquire \u2013 indirectly \u2013 a \u201cborder\u201d with Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israel, however, does not seem to have any intention of replacing Iranian influence in Syria with Turkish influence. On the contrary, it has proceeded to systematically destroy weapons systems deployed in the Damascus area and more broadly on Syrian territory, while about three weeks ago it reportedly captured Turkish soldiers during an operation in the Syrian capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israel’s strategic goal is to keep Syria essentially disarmed, which it has \u2013 so far \u2013 succeeded in doing. And this is precisely what causes the deepest concern in Ankara: a clear strategic weakness vis-\u00e0-vis Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the high-pitched tones, the possibility of a military conflict between Turkey and Israel is considered practically non-existent. Turkey – diplomatic sources note – is a member of NATO and cannot be involved in a military conflict with a country that is a close partner of the Alliance, as this would immediately activate NATO processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, Ankara knows that it currently has no room for high-intensity incidents. On the contrary, it seeks to appear \u201ccooperative\u201d towards the US, hoping for a \u2013 albeit difficult \u2013 rapprochement on the F-35 program. At the same time, it is interested in American engines for the KAAN fighter and in participation in European defense financing tools, from which it has already been excluded, such as the SAFE program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this light, Ankara\u2019s current attacks are expected to be limited to the level of rhetoric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trilateral cooperation between Greece, Cyprus and Israel, however, functions as a multiplier of Turkish annoyance. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched direct barbs, declaring that \u201cnone of this binds us,\u201d questioning agreements and political messages emitted by the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is recalled that Benjamin Netanyahu sent a clear message of deterrence during his speech at the Trilateral Summit in Jerusalem, without naming Turkey: \u201cTo those who fantasize about re-establishing empires, I say forget it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eyes on Washington<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Athens and Nicosia are closely monitoring developments, with their eyes also on the Netanyahu-Trump meeting at Mar-a-Lago. The India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC) is being touted as the \u201cvehicle\u201d to attract American attention, but it is clear that Turkey will also be a key topic of discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In any case, the tension sparked by the Trilateral Summit confirms that this is not a typical diplomatic meeting. This is a scheme that affects the balance in the Eastern Mediterranean \u2013 and this is precisely what most bothers Ankara.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Turkish presidency launched a fierce attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the wake of the trilateral summit between Greece, Cyprus and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,834],"tags":[153,1080,7688,143],"class_list":["post-27349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical","category-middle-east-geopolitical","tag-israel","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-trilateral-summit","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27351,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27349\/revisions\/27351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}