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<\/p>\nTurkey and Israel are at it again, but this time it’s over reports that Turkey has added Israel to its so-called “Red Book,” the top-secret security document that lists the country’s threats and enemies.<\/p>\n
Israeli tourism minister Stas Misezhnikov struck back on Sunday by calling on Israelis to boycott Turkey as a tourist destination out of “national honor.”<\/p>\n
According to Turkish media, the Red Book, which is amended every five years, now identifies Israel as a “strategic threat” to Turkey.<\/p>\n
The document, which is drawn up by Turkey’s National Security Council, accuses Israel of being a destabilizing force and says Israeli actions could provoke a regional arms race.<\/p>\n
Conflicting reports emerged over whether or not Iran, considered a major security threat by Turkey’s NATO allies, had been removed from the same list.<\/p>\n
Although the contents of the Red Book are ostensibly a state secret, leaks to the Turkish press indicate Ankara is losing patience with Israel and wants to send a message.<\/p>\n
Turkey continues to demand an apology and compensation from Israel for raiding a Turkish aid flotilla in international waters on May 31 and killing eight Turks and one Turkish-American activist. Israel maintains its soldiers acted in self-defense. A United Nations report released in September found enough evidence to prosecute the Israelis for war crimes including “willful killing” and “torture or unhumane treatment.”<\/p>\n
But despite evidence to the contrary, Turkish officials repeatedly deny a shift in foreign policy even as tensions with Israel rise and ties with Syria and Iran strengthen. Ankara is also frustrated by\u00a0the pace of its quest to become a full European Union member.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Ankara voiced suspicions that a NATO missile shield aimed at Iran was prompted by Israeli security concerns.<\/p>\n
Still, Turkey is not ready to abandon its ties to Israel completely. Last week, Turkish and Israeli scholars gathered in Ankara amid the diplomatic crisis and concluded that relations were salvageable.<\/p>\n
Ozlem Tur, a scholar at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, was quoted by the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman saying that Turkish-Israeli relations will not improve so long as there is no change in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout an apology and compensation, the relations will not go anywhere,”\u00a0she said of the flotilla raid. “Israel has to comply with the results of the U.N. investigation.”<\/p>\n
—\u00a0Meris Lutz in Beirut<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo: The death of nine Turkish citizens caused widespread outrage in Turkey and may have prompted the inclusion of Israel on a list of security threats. Credit: AFP<\/p>\n
via TURKEY: Ankara adds Israel to list of strategic security threats | Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkey and Israel are at it again, but this time it’s over reports that Turkey has added Israel to its so-called “Red Book,” the top-secret security document that lists the country’s threats and enemies. Israeli tourism minister Stas Misezhnikov struck back on Sunday by calling on Israelis to boycott Turkey as a tourist destination out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":24609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[4120,4119],"class_list":["post-24604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-red-book","tag-strategic-threat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}