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Diplomats downplay the crisis of confidence in relations between regional allies Israel and Turkey, but questions are rising from the latest approach taken by the right-wing government in Tel-Aviv toward Turkish-mediated talks with Syria. “It is normal for Israel to feign reluctance. Turkey has lost its credibility due to the prime minister’s one-sided stance throughout the Gaza war,” Hüseyin Bağcı, international relations professor at the Middle East Technical University, or METU, told the Hürriyet

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Diplomats downplay the crisis of confidence in relations between regional allies Israel and Turkey, but questions are rising from the latest approach taken by the right-wing government in Tel-Aviv toward Turkish-mediated talks with Syria.

“It is normal for Israel to feign reluctance. Turkey has lost its credibility due to the prime minister’s one-sided stance throughout the Gaza war,” Hüseyin Bağcı, international relations professor at the Middle East Technical University, or METU, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Thursday.

On Wednesday, a senior Israeli government official said there would be no new recourse to Turkish mediation, insisting that any new negotiations be direct.

“We have enormous respect and great appreciation for the Turkish efforts. But they have not succeeded – not because of the Turks,” Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told Reuters in an interview. “It’s because of Syrian intransigence.”

Some observers tied the change of policy in the new Israeli government to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s heated confrontation with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year.

“Davos and current statements by the Israeli government official are not connected,” a diplomatic source told the Daily News. “This government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prefers to conduct direct negotiations without mediation.”

‘Turkey not a loser’

Sedat Laçiner, president of the Ankara-based think tank International Strategic Organization, or USAK, said Turkey was involved in Israeli-Syrian indirect dialogue just because the parties’ failure to communicate directly.

“Why has Turkey played the role of a mediator? Because Israeli and Syrian officials cannot talk directly. They cannot even shake hands in the same room,” said Laçiner. “If Israelis can speak with the Syrians directly, let them do so. Turkey, in fact, has no such request to undertake the mission of a mediator,” he said.

Turkey’s non-involvement in the Israeli-Syrian talks will not cause Ankara to lose anything, according to Laçiner.

Turkish officials have repeatedly expressed readiness to restart indirect talks. Before a visit to Syria recently, Erdoğan said: “Requests to resume the process have started to come in, we should get to work on this issue.”

According to diplomatic observers, Israel, unwilling to progress on the Palestinian track amid the continuing settlement activity in the West Bank, will be forced to proceed on the Syrian track, but for the talks to restart under Turkish mediation Ankara needs to regain Israeli confidence.

“What does mediation mean? A mediator is a party that is neutral to anyone and that is trusted by everyone. But Turkey took a side in the Gaza war,” said Bağcı. “Still, despite this, Turkey cannot be taken out of the process entirely,” he said.

Laçiner said: “The United States and European countries cannot act as mediator. Turkey is the key country for access to Syria.”

Turkey has so far hosted four rounds of talks between Israeli and Syrian envoys with some progress. The talks were on the brink of turning into direct contacts during former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s visit to Ankara in late December, but the Gaza war pushed the negotiations off the table.hurriyet

, Voice of a Nation

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