Following recent reports of Turkey arresting alleged Mossad collaborators, Maariv spoke with Dr. Eitan Hai HaCohen Yanorjak, an expert on Turkey, who explained what caused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to change his rhetoric on Israel.
“Erdogan is once again facing internal political challenges in Turkey, and the easiest way to appeal to voters is to attack Israel against the backdrop of the war in Gaza,” stated Dr. Eitan Hai HaCohen Yanorjak, an expert on Turkey from the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.
At the end of March, Turkey will hold elections for local government, and Erdogan must achieve victory in Istanbul and Ankara,” Yanorjak explained, “If he wins, he will be eligible to receive funds from the state treasury and thus finance his party activities. Besides, as the war in Gaza wages, Erdogan can play up solidarity with the Palestinian cause and gain public support. We also see this in the Mossad affair, which has been an ongoing phenomenon for more than three years, where every so often, we see Turkish authorities reporting that they have arrested “Mossad collaborators.”