Making Sense of Israel, Erdoğan, and Turkey

On June 28, Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, the author of our June essay, “Can a Renewed Alliance Between Israel and Turkey Stabilize the Middle East?,” sat down with Andrew Koss, Mosaic’s senior editor, to talk about Israeli-Turkish relations. Yanarocak comments on the two responses to his essay, which presented diametrically opposed views of the subject, but also expounds on much else. Besides the key issues of geopolitics, Turkey’s relations with Islamic State and with Iran, and the role of Islamism in its foreign policy, the discussion also covered Turkish-Jewish history, Yanarocak’s own family and experiences, and the way the country has changed over the course of the past century. The transcript has been edited for clarity and concision.

Andrew Koss:

You’ve written a brilliant essay for Mosaic about Israeli-Turkish relations. Before we get to the nitty-gritty of the essay, and the two responses to it, I think our readers would like to know a little bit about you. You’re an Israeli who was born in Turkey. Tell us a little bit more about yourself.