Israel found itself sucked deep into Turkey's conflict with its Kurdish minority yesterday due to the deepening ties between the two countries.
All Israeli diplomatic missions across Europe were shut after the killings in Berlin, with no word on when they would reopen. Even before Israeli security guards had opened fire on the Kurdish demonstrators, the foreign ministry in Jerusalem had announced a higher state of alert for its diplomatic missions around the world.
What appears to have triggered Israeli fears of attack was a German news report that Israel's Mossad secret service agency had helped to track the Kurdish rebel leader, Mr Abdullah Ocalan, and assisted in his removal from Kenya to Turkey.
"Israel wants to announce in the most clear-cut manner possible that it was not involved in any way in this matter," said a foreign ministry statement issued almost a day before the Berlin killings. The denial was reiterated by the Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, and repeated again by him in his first reaction to the news of the killings.
But the seizure of Mr Ocalan remains cloaked in intrigue, despite a belated statement by the Kenyan authorities - which contradicted an earlier comment - that it was responsible for placing him on the plane to Turkey.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, said the capture was the result of a 12-day covert operation, but he gave no details.
Kurdish suspicions of Israeli involvement appear to be partly based on an article written by a New York Times columnist, William Safire, earlier this month.
Mr Safire wrote: "US and Israeli intelligence and diplomats [are helping] track down the Turks' most wanted Kurd, Abdullah Ocalan, forced out of Damascus after a threat by Turkey to invade Syria and now seeking refuge everywhere." But another factor which cannot be avoided is the burgeoning relationship between Israel and Turkey and its impact on the region, specifically Syria, which led to yesterday's killings.
In 1996, Turkey and Israel signed their first military co-operation agreement. Both sides played down its political significance and went out of their way not to speak of it as an alliance. But with time the relationship has strengthened. To reduce its dependence on American arms, Turkey is concluding major weapons deals with Israel, including a $700 million deal to upgrade 54 Turkish F-4 Phantom jets.
Ankara is also negotiating the purchase of an early warning radar system from Israel. The Israeli defence industry hopes to sell Turkey 1,000 Israeli-made tanks, and some helicopters. On the operational side, the air forces of both countries have agreed to hold joint manoeuvres. During a visit to Jerusalem last September, Mr Netanyahu tried to allay fears about their regional alliance. "We are speaking about natural collaboration between two states in the region, which isn't directed against anyone, but rather designed to contribute to the stability of the region, and to the welfare of Israel and Turkey," he said.
Not surprisingly Syria, and Egypt, have seen it differently. So when, out of the blue, Turkey threatened Syria with military action unless it expelled Mr Ocalan last year, the hand of Israel was perceived to be guiding the pieces on the regional chess board.
Syria felt squeezed as never before, with the danger of attack from the south as well as the north, and certain that Israel was providing Ankara with satellite images of Syrian ground and air defences as a result of its special relationship with the US.
After a fraught two weeks - with the Egyptian president, Mr Hosni Mubarak, leading the diplomatic initiative to halt the slide to war - Damascus capitulated and arranged for Mr Ocalan to be spirited out of the country to Russia. It was the first stop in his search for refuge, which led to Italy and then to Kenya.
The circumstances of his seizure in Kenya cry out for comparison with some of the more famous incidents involving Israeli agents, such as the 1960 kidnapping of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann and the 1976 raid on Entebbe airport, ending the Palestinian hijacking of an El Al flight.
While there is no evidence of Israeli involvement, there is, nevertheless, the enticing thought that Turkey, emboldened by its new relationship with a regional military superpower, decided it was time it, too, flexed some muscle.
Michael Jansen adds:
Turkish television reported yesterday that Mr Ocalan, had travelled to Kenya on a Cypriot passport issued to Mr Lazaros Mavros, a Greek Cypriot television journalist closely connected with the Cyprus Committee for Solidarity with Kurdistan. The document which was shown on television, was not, however, a diplomatic passport, as was alleged.
A spokesman for the committee refused to comment. Following a meeting with his legal advisers the President of Cyprus, Mr Glafkos Clerides, stated: "If the passport is Cypriot then, the police will investigate how and where he got the passport."
The possible complicity of a Greek Cypriot in Mr Ocalan's failed attempt to evade capture by Ankara could exacerbate tension between the republic and Turkey, which has occupied the northern third of the island since 1974.