"We will focus on this question with special regards to three distinctive elements: military agreements, cooperation in the defence industry and collaboration in the fields of security. On April 5, 1996, the Israeli radio publicly announced the signature of a military agreement with Turkey. It is worth noting that the 1996 Israeli-Turkish agreements were not the first of their kind. In fact, the “Peripheral Pact” was signed secretly during a meeting in Ankara, by Turkish Prime Minister A. Menderes and his Israeli counterpart D. Ben Gourion, on August 29 and 30, 1958. This pact established a military cooperation between the two countries, as well as joint trainings for both countries’ armed forces. a) Military agreements: On September 18, 1995, in Tel Aviv, the “Memorandum on Military and Training Aviation” is signed. The following year, on February 23, 1996, the “Turkish-Israeli Military Coordination agreement” is signed by Israeli Director General of Foreign Affairs General David, and by the Vice Chairman of the Turkish Armed Forces, Cevik Bir .
This Agreement, the content of which was never divulgated, addressed the three following items: joint training between the air and marine forces of both countries, exchange of military staff and the possibility offered to both parties to use each other’s respective military bases. b)Two projects were signed on May 5, 1997; the first concerning modernization, by Israel, of Turkish M60’s, and the second concerning the production of 800 Merkavas in Turkey. Likewise, another treaty concerning tank construction might have been signed on October 14, 1997. Ankara and Tel Aviv also signed, on December 9, 1996, a modernization project of 54 F4’s as well as another agreement regarding the modernization of Turkish F5’s on October 14, 1997. c) The Agreement on the fight against terrorism was signed during the visit of Turkish Minister Ciller in November 1994. It would be on the cooperation in the field of intelligence and the fight against Islamist groups suspected of being supported by Saudi Arabia and Iran among others. However, when the Prime Minister B. Netanyahu denounces the PKK in May 1997 and supports Turkey in its fight against it. The following days, a spokesman for the Kurdish movement announced in Beirut that Israel was now a "legitimate target" of the Kurdish action. The regional order post 1991 is favorable to the Israeli-Turkish couple. An order that seems to establish a more or less permanent strength, since no power in the region can currently challenge it. Its alliance with the Jewish State could allow Turkey to find, at certain extent, the same type of influence practiced by the Ottoman Empire in the region for four centuries. Its alliance with Ankara allows Israel to break the hostility belt that has been surrounding it since its creation.
