A comperative study of the Turkey-Israel partnership and the Greek-Cyprus-Israel axis

The South-East Mediterranean is one of the most volatile regions on the planet. Currently, there are several hotspots in the Middle East and many unresolved issues waiting to break out. This study that compares the relations and most importantly the prospects of relation between:

  1. Israel and Turkey, and
  2. Israel and Greece and Cyprus, is very ambitious. The complexity of the problems and the plethora of actors in that small region further impedes the effort.

Nevertheless, the main objective of this study is to understand which relation is more valued by Israel and consequently which one will eventually be chosen. Furthermore, what are the conditions on which that decision depends. The secondary objective is to understand the nature of Hellenic-Israeli alignment and to examine its solidity, consistency and permanence. We have to note that in this study the term Hellenic refers to both Greece and Cyprus because of their common origin.

This study is constructed in three parts, each one examining different elements of the problem.

In the first part, we examine Israel and the relations with its neighbours and the world. The objective of the first part is the establishment of Israel’s strategic imperatives. To that effect we assess the threats presented by its neighbours and we try to unmask the factors closely related with both the threats and the strategic imperatives.

In the second part, we examine Turkey in relation with Israel. We show the history of their relation and we establish Turkey’s foreign policy imperatives. Finally, we discuss the prospect of them being partners anew.

Finally, in the third part, we examine Greece and Cyprus and their relation to Israel. The pivot of Israel’s foreign policy towards Greece and Cyprus has raised many questions, mostly due to the concurrent decline of Turkish-Israeli relation. The objective of our examination is to determine the prospects and the factors affecting that relation.

We analyse the findings of the tree parts and present our thesis on the objectives of the study in the Conclusions. For that effect, we use the “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Treats” (SWOT) methodology, applying it twice on Israel’s case, each time taking account of a different alignment. We comment on the results, state our conclusions and the factors that those are depended on.

Keywords: Turkey-Israel relation; Greece-Cyprus-Israel axis; Threat assessment; Foreign policy; Power struggle; Iran re-entering into the international community; Mediation in the Middle East

The introduction of my first year thesis in International Relations (May 21, 2014) Supervisor: Dr. Fotis Papathanasiou

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