After Istanbul terror, brief Turkish-Israel unity

The tragedy of Israeli deaths in the recent Istanbul suicide bombing might come with a silver lining for Israel, with the attack generating a brief moment of solidarity between the Jewish state and Turkey as they seek to confront the mutual threat of Islamic terrorism emanating from Syria. Does this moment portend longer-term improvements for frayed Israeli-Turkish relations?

During a previously calm Saturday morning in Istanbul’s popular Istiklal Avenue shopping district on March 19, a suicide bomber pierced the morning air with a ringing explosion that killed four people—three Israeli citizens and an Iranian national—and injured 39.

While initial reports were quick to blame the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish militant group fighting the Turkish government for an independent state, it was later determined that the bomber, Mehmet Ozturk, was a Turkish citizen affiliated with the Islamic State terror group. Additional reports indicated that the terrorist may have followed the Israeli tourists from their hotel to a restaurant, then waited for them to finish eating before blowing himself up.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Turkish leaders—including President Recep Tayyip Erodgan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who have both been widely known for their outspoken anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric—were quick to send condolences to Israel.

“I want to send my deepest condolences to the Israeli people and the families that lost their loved ones in this traitorous attack in Istanbul, as they were visiting the city and wanting to get to know our culture better,” Erodgan wrote in a letter.

“I want to express my condolences to the families of Israeli citizens who lost their lives in the despicable attack and to the people of Israel, and I wish the injured a speedy recovery,” said Davutoglu.

Meanwhile, Erdogan’s AKP political party also took the unprecedented step of expelling a low-level official, Irem Aktas, for tweeting that she “wished that the wounded Israeli tourists were dead.”