Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family Senior Fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute.
Articles & Testimony
A closer look at Turkey's motivations for normalizing relations with Israel.
Below are key points from Dr. Cagaptay's article on Turkish-Israeli rapprochement. Download the PDF to read the full article.
Key Points
Turkey was under little apparent pressure to accept the apology offered by Israel for the 2009 Mavi Marmara incident during which Israeli naval commandos killed nine Turkish civilians on a ship attempting to break Israel's economic blockade of the Gaza Strip.
However, regional political and security concerns and more nuanced Turkish foreign policy objectives have combined to compel Ankara to embrace a normalization of relations with Israel.
These Turkish concerns include the fallout from the conflict in Syria, competition with Iran, influence over the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and oil and gas exploitation in the Eastern Mediterranean.
