Revisiting the Turkish-Israeli alliance of the 1990s

Abstract

The Turkish-Israeli ‘honeymoon’ of the 1990s has been explained by different concepts such as alliance, strategic partnership, or cooperation and friendship, with these concepts often used interchangeably. As a corollary of the Turkish official narrative, which is based on a national security approach, certain explanations were offered in justification of the close relationship, including shared traditional democratic culture and secular character, as well as conducive international atmosphere. According to this construction, Turkey had no option but to align with Israel. On the other hand, while the ‘honeymoon’ was often seen as a foreign policy issue directly affected by the military bureaucracy, negative discourses against Israel in domestic politics, and institutional challenges in the Turkish state structure were often ignored. By way of filling this lacuna, the present article evaluates the impact of domestic factors, including the capital-owning class, lobbies, and institutional changes in the Turkish security apparatus on Turkish-Israeli relations.