Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called his Israeli counterpart Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu a "terrorist" on Sunday, after the Israeli prime minister rejected Ankara's "moral lessons" over the deadly attack in Gaza.
By repeatedly hitting out at Israel, Erdoğan may be catering to his voter base but it is meaningless after all the fund relations like million dollars worth accords, armour dealings and natural gas trade.
In a televised speech in Adana, southern Turkey, Erdoğan told supporters: "We don't have the shame of invading on us, Netanyahu. You are an invader and right now are present in those lands as an invader. At the same time, you are a terrorist."
In another speech he said: "You are a terrorist state. It is known what you have done in Gaza and what you have done in Jerusalem. You have no one that likes you in the world."
The comments came after at least 15 Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured by Israeli security forces on Friday confronting one of the largest Palestinian demonstrations along the Israel-Gaza border in recent years.
Netanyahu rejected Ankara's "moral lessons" and accused Turkey of indiscriminately bombing civilians in its actions abroad.
"The most moral army in the world will not be lectured to on morality from someone who for years has been bombing civilians indiscriminately," Netanyahu said on Twitter.
He has previously called Erdoğan someone who "bombs Kurdish villagers" in a reference to Ankara's military operations in the Afrin area of Syria.
'BLOOD MONEY' DEAL
Israel and Turkish government's relationship was crowned when Israel paid "blood money" for those who lost their lives in an Israeli raid on a Turkish aid flotilla, Mavi Marmara that killed 10 people in 2010.
AKP government which took 20 million dollars in return did not give the money to the victims' families, but appropriated the money. After the reactions they got, Turkish Ministry of Finance had stated that they would convey the money to the victims’ families.
ERDOĞAN: 'DID YOU ASK MY PERMISSION?'
About a year ago, it is still being remembered that Erdoğan back-pedaled by saying "Did you take the permission of the-then Prime Minister?" about the victims of Mavi Marmara attack. Forgetting that he had said "We gave the permission" 2 years before this statement.
SELLING NATURAL GAS TO EUROPEAN MARKETS
As for the agreements between Turkey and Israel, according to known data, around 60 military and economical large and small scaled agreements worth over 1 billion dollars. Turkey gave up the request of the removal of the blockade in Gaza. In return, a relationship has been developed in which Turkey buys natural gas from Israel and sells it to European markets.
ARM DEALINGS
Moreover, the Turkish government’s decision to suspend military and commercial ties to Israel or to impose trade sanctions were never put into practice during the "diplomatic crisis" following the Mavi Marmara incident.
Turkey's Machinery and Chemical Industry Institution (MKE) opened a transportation bid for 31 thousand 500 pieces to be picked up from Israel.
Turkey enjoyed trade flows with Israel, receiving $3 billion in imported goods while exporting the same financial amount in Turkish goods to Israel in 2014. Israeli-Turkish trade has grown by 19 percent since 2009, while Turkey’s overall foreign trade for the same period grew by 11 percent. The number of Israeli tourists to Turkey also increased by 125 percent at that time.
OIL SHIPMENT
It came to light that Israel imported 19 billion barrels of oil from Iraqi Kurdistan. It has been identified that Iraqi Kurdistan was exporting one of three of its oil shipment to Israel and Ceyhan in Adana, Turkey was the distribution port of the oil going to Israel.
So what does Erdoğan’s statement suggest? He still might be trying to clear his reputation amongst Islamic countries, and one can just look at the relations of the two countries to understand that this breakthrough will not be effecting the million dollar agreements and investments.
