Tension is at its height between Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Benjamin Netanyahu. Denouncing the cost in human lives of Israeli bombings of the Gaza Strip to fight Hamas, the Turkish president on Wednesday described Israel as a “terrorist state”.
“I say it clearly: Israel is a terrorist state,” declared Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing members of his party in the Turkish Parliament, two days before a visit to Germany.
Berlin criticizes Erdogan’s accusations
“We curse the Israeli government, but we do not forget those who openly support these massacres and those who do everything possible to legitimize them,” he added, referring to the United States and other countries. Westerners who support Israel. “They are trying to exonerate the killers,” denounced the Turkish president. “We are facing a genocide.”
The German Chancellor on Tuesday described as “absurd” the accusations of “fascism” recently made by the Turkish president against Israel, at war with Hamas since October 7.
On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to Erdogan’s comments. He “calls Israel a terrorist state but in reality supports the terrorist state of Hamas. He himself bombed Turkish villages, even within Turkish borders. We will not accept any remarks from him,” the Israeli leader said.
On Friday, the Turkish president launched a diatribe against Israel which, according to him, “has been trying to build a state for seventy-five years on land stolen from the Palestinian people” and whose legitimacy is “questioned because of its own fascism”. He was speaking at a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey.
These declarations caused a lot of noise, particularly in Germany, where the existence of Israel is considered a “reason of state” given German responsibility for the Holocaust.
A devout Muslim and defender of the Palestinian cause, the Turkish president took up the cause of Hamas as the number of Palestinian casualties in the Gaza Strip increased due to Israeli retaliation after the massive attack by the 7 terrorist movement. October which left 1,200 dead in Israel, mainly civilians. At least 11,500 Palestinians, again mostly civilians, have been killed in bombings since the start of the war, according to the Hamas government.