The diplomatic freeze between Turkey and Israel in the aftermath of the Israeli commando raid against a Turkish aid ship continues but may have minimal effect on business ties between the two nations. Turkey is Israelโs largest commercial partner in the region, with sales worth $2.5 billion last year
Thousands of Turks protest Israel during a demonstration in Ankara on June 6, 2010.
Five miles from the center of Tel Aviv, more than a dozen Turks wearing red shirts emblazoned with their national flag work to complete a 30-story residential tower.
Manager Nissim Gayus says itโs โbusiness as usual,โ six weeks after Israeli troops killed nine activists, including eight Turks and one American of Turkish origin, on an aid convoy bound for the Gaza Strip.
While the raid has strained a political alliance of more than half a century, commercial ties between the countries survive, according to Gayus, who works at the Ankara-based Yฤฑlmazlar Construction Group.
โThe private sector just hasnโt been influenced at all,โ Gayus said at Yฤฑlmazlarโs Ramat Gan office outside Tel Aviv. โWeโre not feeling any damage in our projects.โ
Turkey is Israelโs largest commercial partner in the region, with sales worth $2.5 billion last year. Israeli Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoฤlu met in Brussels on June 30 to discuss future relations, signaling a shared interest in repairing damage caused by the commando raid on the flotilla.
The focus on keeping trade doors open, including the one leading to Turkeyโs purchase of military aircrafts, highlights the resilience of a partnership that extends from defense technology to construction. This economic cooperation contrasts with a freeze at the diplomatic level.
Turkey was among the first majority-Muslim nations to recognize Israel after its creation in 1948. The two countries are the main allies of the United States in the Middle East and they share military technology.
Acquisition of Herons
Even though Turkey has canceled military exercises involving Israel after the killings, it is pushing ahead with an acquisition of 10 Heron unmanned surveillance planes made by Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems. A Turkish delegation visited in mid-June to examine the last four drones, and the drones will be brought to Turkey for final tests this month, according to Turkish and Israeli officials.
Metals, petrochemicals and textiles are also key components of trade. Iron and steel were Turkeyโs main exports to Israel in 2009, making up about one-seventh of the $1.5 billion total. Oil refineries based in Haifa said in a June 2 filing that they expect Turkey sales to be seven percent to nine percent of this yearโs total revenue, which analysts estimate at 8 billion shekels ($2.1 billion). This is a similar share to 2009 proportions.
Menashe Carmon, chairman of the Tel Aviv-based Israel-Turkey Business Council and owner of Overseas Export-Import Ltd., which buys yarn and fibers from Turkey, said his operations have been stable in the past six weeks.
โWhen it comes to imports and exports, joint ventures and mutual investments between Turkish and Israeli businesses, itโs business as usual,โ he said.
What has changed is that security advisers are deterring Israelis from traveling to Turkey, Carmon said. After thousands of Turks took to the streets chanting anti-Israeli slogans to protest the aid ship killings, Israelโs Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning classifying Turkey as a โvery high and concrete threatโ for Israeli travelers.
Carmon said he has received complaints from metal importers who cannot send staff to Turkey to carry out compliance tests and from Israeli exporters who cannot send technicians to install or service machines.
Israeli companies, especially in the agricultural and water technology industry, which have provided equipment to local Turkish governments in the past, may find they lose out on contracts, said Doron Abrahami, Israelโs trade attachรฉ in Istanbul. He said at least one Turkish municipality has told its Israeli supplier that future bids will not be welcome.
A planned meeting of top executives from the largest Turkish and Israeli companies was canceled last month after the flotilla raid, business daily Referans reported, citing Zeynep Silahtaroฤlu Baykal of the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association, or TรSฤฐAD, one of Turkeyโs largest business groups.
Israeli tourists stop coming
Travel companies say Israelis are no longer taking the one-hour flight from Tel Aviv to Antalya, the popular Turkish resort on the Mediterranean.
โNo one is coming from Israel,โ and all charter flights since May 31 have been canceled, said Arkฤฑn ลenol, deputy head of Antalya-based Kalanit Tours. โWe were planning for at least 50,000 passengers for June, July and August, and, so far, nothing.โ
The loss for local tourism companies will be about $80 million, ลenol said.
โThe Israelis felt very close to Turkey,โ said Oktay Eryener, whose Polente Tour has brought Israelis to Turkey for 20 years and now cannot find customers. โMany had been coming here for years. They have ties, know people.โ Eryener said he has had to lay off all but two of his 12 Hebrew-speaking Turks.
Israeli tour companies are also suffering. The slump in travel to Turkey has been โvery harmfulโ for Tel Aviv-based travel agent Aviation Links, Vice-President Avi Raz said by telephone. The companyโs shares have slumped 28 percent since the raid, while the benchmark TA-100 Index rose 1.1 percent.
Turkish businessman Ahmet Nazif Zorlu, whose energy company has contracts to build four gas-fired power plants in Israel, said in an interview with Bloomberg HT television last week that the venture is still on course, though its fate may ultimately hinge on politics.
โWeโll continue in line with the Turkish governmentโs decisions about Israel,โ Zorlu said of the $1 billion plan. Shares of Zorlu Enerji have fallen 3.6 percent since May 31, compared with the 5.5 percent advance of the benchmark Istanbul Stock Exchange-100 index.
Public pressure
There are political as well as economic ramifications for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoฤan, who must run for re-election next year in a country where almost two-thirds of the public say his response to the Gaza deaths was not tough enough, according to a June 3 survey of 1,000 people by Ankara-based Metropoll.
Anti-Israel rhetoric has won Erdoฤan votes in the past, said Adil Gรผr, the head of the Istanbul-based pollster A&G. When the premier stormed out of a Davos meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres in January last year, telling him, โYou know very well how to kill,โ it boosted his support in local elections two months later, Gรผr said.
For Israel-Turkey projects such as those of builder Yฤฑlmazlar, the key to sustaining business lies in easing the tensions between the two governments.
โAs long as Turkey doesnโt escalate the political tension with Israel, then we donโt expect there to be any changes to the current status,โ said Gayus, the companyโs general consultant and representative in Israel.