5 - 11 July 2001
Issue No.541
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 5 - 11 July 2001 Issue No.541 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
The sky's limits
Turkey downplayed recent joint air manoeuvres it held with Israel, knowing the sensitivity of its Arab neighbours and the general sympathy Palestinians enjoy among Turks since the Intifada started, Gareth Jenkins writes from Istanbul
On Friday Turkish and Israeli warplanes concluded 10 days of mock aerial combat over central Turkey in the first ever joint air exercises between the two countries. The exercises infuriated Arab commentators who protested that the holding of such manoeuvres amounted to a declaration of support for Israel at a time when it had effectively declared war on the Palestinians.
The exercises, held near the Turkish city of Konya and code- named Anatolian Eagle, began on 18 June. They included mock aerial dogfights, simulated surface-to-air missile attacks and live bombing and strafing. Ten Israeli F-16 fighter bombers participated in the exercises, backed by two tanker planes and several helicopters. A total of 46 Turkish warplanes took part, together with a token force of six US F-16s.
Israeli pilots have trained in Turkish airspace since 1996, when the two countries signed a defence training agreement. Turkish pilots have also receiving training at Israeli facilities in the Negev desert. In addition, the two countries have conducted a series of joint search and rescue naval manoeuvres, usually in cooperation with the US. In April this year Turkish and Israeli warships held an exercise at the Aksaz naval base on Turkey's southwestern coast.
Last month's air manoeuvres were hailed by Israelis as proof of a strengthening strategic alliance between the two countries.
"This exercise indicates deepening relations between Turkey and Israel," said Shlomo Brom, a researcher at Tel Aviv University's Jaffee centre for Strategic Studies.
"It is very important that at a time of relative crisis the two countries show their continued readiness to work together in defence matters," said Barry Rubin, deputy director of Bar-Ilan University's BESA Centre for Strategic Studies in Israel.
But inside Turkey there are signs that even the country's powerful military, which was the driving force behind the 1996 training agreement, is increasingly aware of the limits of its relationship with Israel.
In the late 1990s Israeli defence firms won several lucrative contracts with the Turkish armed forces. But by mid-2000 Turkish enthusiasm had begun to wane as it became clear that Washington would not allow Israel to be a backdoor through which Ankara could secure access to US military technology. In August 2000 Turkey abruptly rescinded a commitment to award Israeli firms defence contracts worth a total of $625 million. In May this year, the Turkish air force complained that a $600 million upgrade of Turkey's F-4 warplanes by Israel Aircraft Industries was defective.
"Some of the new equipment doesn't work," said a military source. "The Israelis are saying it is our fault, but it is not. They haven't done the job properly."
Plans to underpin defence cooperation by supplying Israel with water have also recently run into difficulties. Turkey has spent over $150 million on a project to export 45 million cubic metres of water a year from the Manavgat River to Israel. But the finalisation of the project has been stalled over a disagreement over cost, with Israelis offering only half of the price demanded by the Turkish government.
There is also little doubt that the brutality of the Israeli response to the Palestinian Intifada has also had a significant impact on public attitudes towards closer cooperation with Israel. Turks are taught in school that the Arabs stabbed the Ottoman Empire in the back by siding with the British during World War I. But nightly pictures on television of Palestinian children being shot at by Israeli troops and of the flattened or blasted ruins of Palestinian houses have awakened a sense of Muslim solidarity amongst the Turkish public which has, temporarily at least, overridden racial prejudice against Arabs.
Significantly, the Turkish military sought to play down last month's joint air manoeuvres with the Israelis with the result that they received almost no coverage in the Turkish media. Unlike the previous naval exercises, the Turkish General Staff made no mention of the manoeuvres on its website, and in briefings to journalists sought to stress the commercial potential of renting out the facilities in Konya for the use of allied armed forces.
"The 1996 defence training agreement was long overdue," said a military source. "We should have signed something similar five, maybe ten, years before. But there are limits to how closely we can cooperate. And we certainly don't want to get involved in any conflict between Israel and its neighbours."
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page