Can science save Israeli-Turkish relations?

Is a thaw in Israeli-Turkish relations in the offing? Several articles focusing on scientific cooperation between Israel and Turkey in the Turkish media may indicate that change is coming.

Israeli-Turkish relations, which had been strong until about six years ago, started going south in the wake of Israel’s war against Hamas in 2006, and turned positively frigid after the 2010 flotilla, in which IDF troops killed nine people on the Mavi Marmara after being set upon by a mob on that ship. Since then, tourism, business ties, and military cooperation between the two countries have come to a screeching halt.

But recent articles in the prominent Turkish newspaper Hurriyet and on the popular SES Turkiye website discuss recent Israeli-Turkish scientific cooperation that, despite the enmity between the countries, is still ongoing. Not only that: Last year, Israel’s Industrial Center for Research and Development, MATIMOP, issued a Request for Proposals on technology projects together with TUBITAK, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. Both Israel and Turkey are very interested in encouraging such projects, says Uzi Bar-Sadeh, MATIMOP’s point man on relations with Turkey. While he could understand Israeli companies having some misgivings about entering into joint projects with Turkish companies, “there is nothing for Israelis to worry about. There would not be any problems, not from Israel’s side nor from Turkey’s.”

Among the cooperation highlighted in the Hurriyet and SES Turkiye articles is the work done by Professor Eithan Galun of Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem and Professor Mehmet Ozturk of the Genetics and Biotechnology Centre at Bilkent University in Ankara. Professor Ozturk said in an interview that he and Professor Galun have worked with each other on research and other activities for two decades — and that nothing has changed in the past several years. If the two are not actively working on a project right now — both in the past tried to develop multi-country research teams from Turkey, Israel and Arab countries to research liver cancer — it’s because of a dearth of funding, not a lack of desire. “I believe that science, in particular biomedical research, is one way to keep communication open between countries having sociopolitical problems. This is because biomedical science contributes to the well-being of the whole of humanity, beyond physical barriers between people,” Professor Ozturk said in the interview.

The articles also cite Associate Professor Basak Kayhan of the Medical Biology and Genetics Department at Inonu University, who spent several years working at the Weizmann Institute, where he worked with Professor Ruth Arnon, currently director of the Israeli Academy of Sciences (and co-developer of multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone). “In scientific and social terms, I passed the most productive and best period of my lifetime in Israel,” Kayhan said in the interview. The article in Hurriyet credits Kayhan with several research advances that are being used by Biondvax, the Israeli company that is developing a universal flu vaccine.

An op-ed last week in the English-language edition of Hurriyet by Professor Taner Sen says that the time has come for Israel and Turkey, which he calls “natural allies,” to mend fences and restore relations, using “science diplomacy. Academics would be a perfect choice for jump-starting Turkish-Israeli ties as, by nature, they tend to put aside politics and concentrate on their science,” Sen writes. Speaking to the Times of Israel, Sen said that scientists care about science, not nationalities. “They care about the quality of science and advancing research. I believe that scientists would be willing to cooperate in a program that could advance relations between the two countries.”

But while the desire is there, says Professor Efraim Inbar of Bar-Ilan University, there is still some way to go for Israeli-Turkish relations to get back on track — even from a science and technology perspective. “I am in touch with Turkish academics, and many of them are uncomfortable at the turn relations between our countries have taken. But there is still a long way to go. Turkey has just recently instituted a rule that requires Israeli planes to declare if they are carrying hazardous materials before flying over Turkish airspace, something that will make flying over Turkey, even en route, much more difficult. I don’t see relations warming anytime soon.” On the other hand, Inbar agrees that if there is hope, it lies with academics. “They respect our work, and we may yet restore relations in the future.”