The Turkey Israel Conflict

1. An Update for the Conflict
Between Turkey and Israel
Iakovos Alhadeff

2. In my essay ‘The Real Causes of the Conflict Between Turkey and
Israel’, I was describing how this conflict is nothing more than another
‘cold’, for them moment, energy war. I would now like to update the
above essay, or say with fewer words what I was saying in this essay.
http://iakal.wordpress.com/2014/08/23/the-causes-behind-the-conflict-between-
turkey-and-israel/
It is a well known fact that Turkey imports most of its oil and natural gas,
and it therefore wishes to become the absolute energy hub that will
connect Asia to Europe (red lines) as a remedy to this problem. This will
generate billions in terms of transferring fees, and a dramatic increase in
Turkey’s geopolitical significance.
This is the reason that Turkey is so aggressive towards Israel and Syria
who tried to provide an alternative route of energy to Europe (black
lines), Israel by exploiting its natural gas reserves and Syria by agreeing
to the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline, which would bring Iranian natural gas and
oil to the Mediterranean Sea, and from there to the European markets. I
have written many times about these issues so I will not repeat myself.

3. The question was why the Israelis could not avoid the conflict with this
regional superpower that has an army of 1 million men, since it was fully
aware of Turkey’s energy strategy. The answer is quite simple. Israel is
surrounded by enemies and it considers of vital importance to have its
own energy supplies, for energy security reasons first of all, and for the
obvious economic benefits.
However in order to exploit its natural gas reserves, Israel had to make an
agreement with Cyprus, on the Exclusive Economic Zones of the two
countries i.e. which sea parts belong to one country and which to the
other, as you can see on the map above which was taken from the
following Foreign Affairs article (only the dark part of the map without
the colouring which is mine).
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/139069/yuri-m-zhukov/trouble-in-the-
eastern-mediterranean-sea
The problem is that Turkey has occupied the northern part of Cyprus in
1974 (red circle), and claims a part of the island’s natural gas reserves.
However the occupied territory is not internationally recognized, and
therefore any deal between Israel and Turkey would have been illegal.
The only option Israel had in order to exploit its natural gas reserves was
to ignore its ex-ally, and strike a deal with Cyprus, and that’s exactly
what it did. Turkey did not forgive Israel for that.