Ankara, July 5, IRNA — Turkey said Monday that it opted for severing its military ties with Israel, closing its airspace to Israeli military flights in protest at Israeli commando raid on a Turkish aid ship ferrying in international waters toward Gaza.
Four weeks after the May 31 boarding of the Mavi Marmara severely damaged Ankara’s relationship with Tel Aviv, Ankara says it opted for severing its military ties with Israel.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters after a Group of 20 summit in Toronto Monday that Turkey has banned Israeli military flights from its airspace since the May 31 boarding of the Gaza-bound aid ship in which eight Turkish nationals and an American of Turkish descent were killed.
Erdogan was responding to questions about an Israeli plane carrying military personnel to Auschwitz, Poland, that was forced to divert earlier this month. A Turkish official clarified that military flights would be considered on a case-by-case basis and civilian flights wouldn’t be affected.
Immediately after the Gaza incident, Turkey canceled three scheduled military exercises with Israel. Since then, it has warned that ties could be further restricted if Israel fails to apologize to Turkey over the Mavi Marmara affair, among other conditions.
“If the U.S. has to choose between Israel and Turkey at one point, it would choose Israel, which would cause further stress” between Ankara and Washington, said Serdar Erdurmaz, an arms expert and former Turkish defense-industry executive at the Turkish Center for International Relations and Strategic Studies in Ankara.
Military contracts were well over $1 billion in advanced avionics, long-range fuel tanks and cruise missiles to outfit Turkish fighter planes; a deal to upgrade 170 M60 tanks; and another to provide Turkey with drones. The drones are still being delivered, despite the latest crisis.
Neither side has ever revealed the precise extent of their military relationship.
Janes’ Defence newsletter indicated that Israeli annual military sales to Turkey easily exceeded $2 billion.
It said the context of the relationship has changed as Turkey transforms its foreign policy and opens up to neighbors in the Middle East.
Despite the recent upswing in Kurdish rebel attacks, threats to the Turkish military—the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s second-largest after the U.S.—have decreased dramatically.