Hassan Hanizadeh in an interview with the site of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations stated:” the recent visit of a delegation of Rabbis from different countries of the region to Ankara and phone calls between Recep Tayyib Erdogan, Turkish President and Isaac Herzog President of the Zionist regime indicate a new atmosphere in relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv”.

He said:” As we witnessed, the office of the Turkish President announced on the last hours of the January 20,2022 that Recep Tayyib Erdogan had expressed condolences to his Zionist counterpart, Isaac Herzog, and a news site in Turkey commented in this respect as saying that the contact was made in line with the normalization of relations between Turkey and the Zionist regime”.

Hanizadeh stressed:” Despite the apparent policy of Recep Tayyib Erdogan to confront with the Zionist regime, but evidences indicate that he has kept his relations with the regime at various levels”.

According to the expert in the course of the (recent) meeting with Rabbis, Recep Tayyib Erdogan promised them to normalize the level of relations between Turkey and the Zionist regime within the coming months. In order to appreciate such a measure, Rabbis presented an Enlightenment of Hanukkah which is the symbol of enlightening and Jewish religion to the President of Turkey”.

Having pointed out that Erdogan proved to be a professional political player he said:” in February 2009 on the sidelines of the Davos Summit Meeting of World Leaders and in the Security Session of Davos, Switzerland, while sitting next to Shimon Perez, the former president of the Zionist regime, Erdogan in a show off gesture sharply criticized the Zionist regime’s policies and left the Meeting in protest”.

He continued:” Justice and Development Party of Turkey organized a glorious popular welcome ceremony when Recep Tayyib Erdogan returned Ankara from Davos. This very issue promoted his political position inside Turkey and in the World of Islam”.

The expert believes that the deceiving measure of Recep Tayyib Erdogan at Davos strongly increased his popularity among Arab and Islamic nations, to the extent that Khaled Mashal, the then Chairman of Political Bureau of HAMAS define him as the real leader of Islamic Ummah in his meeting with the President of Turkey”.

Hanizadeh continued:” in 2010 and after the commandos of the Zionist regime raided the Turkish Marmara ship containing humanitarian aids to Ghaza inhabitants in Mediterranean Sea, Ankara demoted its political relations with the Zionist regime”.

The expert of international issues underscored:” in the course of the raid, ten navies of Marmara ship were killed but the Zionist regime paid later $ 20 million as the compensation for the killing of Turkish nationals”.

According to Hanizadeh, despite such incidents, economic and security relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv continued clandestinely; particularly with reference to the extensive military assistance sent to Baku by the Zionist regime in the course of the recent war in Karabakh between the Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia, which was mostly forwarded through Turkey”.

He continued to say:” yet, within the recent years the government of Turkey claims to be the standard bearer of defending the rights of Palestinian nation, to the extent that many leaders of Palestinian combatant movements tried to approach to the government of Recep Tayyib Erdogan”.

Having emphasized that since last year the policies of Turkish government have dramatically changed, Hanizadeh continued:” Ankara sent positive signals to Tel Aviv with regard to Turkish readiness to promote its relations with the Zionist regime once again”.

According to the expert the unclear Turkish policy in the region and private relations of Erdogan with the Zionist regime gradually caused the Islamic and Arab nations to realize the cosmetic anti-Israeli measures of Ankara and thus Erdogan lost his reputation.

He also said unprecedented devaluation of Turkish Lira, rising inflation rate, departure of influential political personalities from Justice and Development Party and measure taken by Erdogan to limit the managerial circle to his close aides and relatives indicate a gap between the Justice and Development Party and Turkish nation. According to the expert the President of Turkey has now lost all of his winning cards. Many analysts believe that AKP Party will badly lose in June 2022 parliamentary election and Erdogan will not be able to continue his crucial authority.

He added:” from the other side, the EU pessimism to the policies of Justice and Development Party, rising tensions between Greece and Turkey as well as unjustifiable intervention of Turkey in Northern Cyprus have caused Ankara to deal with international challenges within the recent months”.

The expert of the Middle East issues believes that the Turkish government is now stepping in a challenging road and is facing with a major crisis not only in international spheres but also in internal areas particularly in domestic economy that can overshadow the political future of Justice and Development Party.

He finally underscored there is a probability that having continued these policies, the political fate of Recep Tayyib Erdogan may suffer from that of Hosni Mubarak, the former dictator of Egypt and availing itself of the existing political vacuum the Turkish army may keep a grip on power. That’s why Erdogan tries to approach the Zionist regime and to seek its assistance to settle some of his challenges. However, the measure can be costly for him.