After US, Erdogan takes aim at Israel
Ankara changing its strategy and freezes steps of rapprochement with both countries
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is believed to be changing the country’s strategy, with political analysts suggesting that his government has shelved recent attempts to re-engage with the US and Israel and has instead started a campaign to advocate for the protection of the Muslim world. In his speech to his party’s parliamentary group on Wednesday, Erdogan slammed Israeli forces for their attacks on Gaza and claimed that cutting off water and electricity “is not war, but massacre.”
“These are not reflexes of a state but of an organization,” he said, stressing that if Israel does not behave as a state but as an organization, then it too will be treated as an organization. After showing his proposal with maps for the establishment of a Palestinian state, he argued that if this does not happen, the existence of the state of Israel will be threatened and “the incidents that have broken out since last Saturday will not end and worse tragedies will follow.”
This was preceded by the Turkish president’s statements against the US, accusing it of “supporting and training and arming terrorist organizations” and that with the US aircraft carrier off Gaza “they will go on a massacre.” On Tuesday night, the Turkish leader had a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and it seems the two leaders share the same view on the Middle East regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state, but blame Washington’s stance for the developments in the region.
Meanwhile, the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet published the response of Turkey’s Deputy Education Minister Nazif Yilmaz on X to a post by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showing the bombing in Gaza.
“One day they will shoot you too. You will die!” the Turkish minister wrote. By late Wednesday the message remained on X and had not been withdrawn. Support for Hamas has also been expressed by Republican People’s Party Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu and Future Party Chairman Ahmet Davutoglu. Two pro-Islamic parties HUDA PAR and Saadet are also planning a large rally in support of the Palestinians.
Political analysts contend that one of the main reasons why Ankara is not maintaining a neutral stance, as it did in the Russia-Ukraine war, is due to assessments in Ankara that the balance in the region is changing and that Turkey should play a leading role like Russia, Iran, Israel and the US.
