Relations between Turkey and Israel have deteriorated significantly since 2023. Historian and International Relations scholar Eldad Ben Aharon draws parallels to the crisis in Israeli-Turkish relations in the 1980s. The book analyzes how the crisis was handled in the regional and international context and concludes that the denial of the Armenian Genocide played a central role.
With his new book, Israeli-Turkish Relations at the End of the Cold War: The Geopolitics of Denying the Armenian Genocide, Eldad Ben Aharon presents the first comprehensive study of Israeli-Turkish relations in the 1980s. Using archival records and interviews, he analyzes Israeli foreign policy towards Turkey, including the persistence of secret contacts despite the diplomatic crisis after July 1980. Tracing the influence of the Turkish military leadership, the book also reveals the special role of former Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Özal in normalizing bilateral relations.
Ben Aharon examines the relationship between the two countries through the lens of key regional turning points, including the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Jerusalem Act of July 1980, the military coup in Turkey in September 1980, and the first Lebanon War in 1982. The book explicates these regional developments alongside Turkey’s 1987 bid to join the European Economic Community, U.S. foreign policy under Ronald Reagan and the early stages of the American “war on terror”.
Through the analysis of internal debates within the Israeli diplomatic corps, Ben Aharon reveals the dilemmas that arose from Turkey's policy of denying the Armenian Genocide, which threatened to undermine Israel's foreign policy priorities in Washington and Brussels. Showing how the basic features of international memory politics took shape in the 1980s, the book reveals that while the Holocaust became a global normative scale for human rights education and the prevention of genocide, the Armenian Genocide was marginalized, contested, and denied by Turkey. As a result of these actions during formative years, Turkey's NATO allies refused to recognize the Armenian Genocide for decades.
Despite emerging under very different circumstances, the crises of 1980 and 2023 follow strikingly similar patterns. As Ben Aharon notes, the book: “not only shows how the foundations of the alliance Israel and Turkey laid in the 1980s shaped relations for decades to come”, but also “explains how the historical constellation had a lasting influence the rise of Erdogan and Netanyahu”.
Regarding the choice of cover image, the author comments: “I decided to feature Turgut Özal, the Turkish Prime Minister from 1983 to 1989, on the book cover. His portrayal not only reflects the iconic style of the 1980s but also shows the central role of certain individuals in shaping diplomacy and statecraft.”
About the Book
“Israeli Turkish Relations at the End of the Cold War: The Geopolitics of Denying the Armenian Genocide” is Ben Aharon's first monograph. It is based on his dissertation, which he completed in 2019 at the Department of History at Royal Holloway, University of London. The book was published by Edinburgh University Press on November 30, 2025.