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Israel: Strategic alliance with Turkey survived election

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, November 5, 2002

TEL AVIV Ñ Israel has concluded that an Islamic-oriented government in Turkey will not cancel Israeli-led military projects.

Analysts and officials said Israel was prepared for an AKP victory. They said Israeli diplomats and officials engaged in a quiet dialogue with some of the AKP leadership.

The result, they said, is that AKP has quietly acknowledged Israel as a strategic ally of Turkey. They said any attempt to end Israeli-Turkish defense relations will be opposed by Ankara's military, Middle East Newsline reported.

Israeli analysts and officials predicted that the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, will not cancel or suspend a range of military upgrades and other projects being conducted by Israeli defense contractors.

Israeli firms are engaged in about $1 billion worth of military projects in Turkey.

"They won't cancel any curent deals," Alon Liel, a former Israeli Foreign Ministry director-general and ambassador to Ankara, said. "But I don't think we will be able to add [additional contracts]."

"There could be changes in tone, but the strategic relations will continue," Uri Bar-Ner, a former Israeli ambassador to Turkey, said.

Bar-Ner said the strategic relations between Ankara and Jerusalem go beyond that of the military. He said Israel is the only country that lobbies for Turkey in the White House and Congress. Israel and Turkey also have a brisk intelligence exchange on military and security issues, he said.

But some officials said the AKP will seek to highlight the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They envisioned a scenario in which the ruling party would seek to block Israeli defense bids as several European Union countries have already done.

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