A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Friday, February 13, 2009

Could this Explain Erdogan's Outburst?

An interesting article in Haaretz, citing a "Turkish official," says that during Ehud Olmert's visit to Ankara, Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Bashar al-Asad while Olmert was in an adjoining room, and arranged for the Israelis and Syrians to agree to a direct meeting of their delegations. But a week before the joint announcement was to take place, Israel invaded Gaza.

According to the story, Erdogan felt that Israel had "stabbed him in the back" by involving him in mediating the breakthrough and not warning him of the Gaza operation.

If this is true, it could be an explanation for Erdogan's outburst against Israel and Shimon Peres at the Davos Economic Summit, which has soured Turkish-Israeli relations.

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