I have no insight on Turkish politics but I suspect that Obama’s public distancing of the U.S. (well, his administration, anyway) from Israel is emboldening Turkish P.M. Erdogan to risk foolish provocations against Israel. Erdogan also knows full well that any attack on a Turkish ship by Israel, no matter how egregious the provocation, would be met with severe condemnation from the Obama administration and the risk of a coordinated attack on Israel from it’s neighbors, who need little excuse to kill Jews. Whatever Erdogans motivation, this will not end well for anyone involved, especially the Turks.
Since the early nineteen nineties and the Clinton administration support for the Muslim leadership in Bosnia, Erdogan has played his Islamist games. He supported the phoney Islamic charities that worked in the Balkans. He met with Iranian principals to coordinate their activity in support of the Bosnia Islamists. He collected funds for their support. He is not now, nor was he then, a friend of the West.