Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey on Sunday appeared to threaten to invade Israel in favour of the Palestinians and terminate the nearly ten-month conflict Israel is engaged in with Hamas in Gaza.
During a conservative Justice and Development Party meeting, Erdogan stated that Turkey is capable of anything. He referred to the current military "intervention" in Libya, which began in 2020, as well as the dispute in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is between Azerbaijan and Armenia. According to him, Turkey needs to hold its ground if Israel is to be prevented from waging war on Gaza.
"We must be very strong so that Israel cannot do this to Palestine," Erdogan said. "As we did in Karabakh and Libya, we can do to them as well. There is nothing left to do, we must be strong.
"We will do the same to them, there's nothing we can do. We just need to be strong so that we can take part in these stages. We have to be very strong so that Israel can't do this to Palestine."
In response, Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz sharply criticized Erdogan's remarks. "Erdogan is following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein by threatening to attack Israel. He should remember what happened there and how it ended," Katz posted on X (formerly Twitter), linking the comments to a photograph of Saddam Hussein’s execution.
Erdogan made these comments when the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah was rising. Twelve children were killed on Saturday when a Hezbollah missile struck the Druze community of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. To stop the war from spreading farther and wider in the region, the international community is working.
There are real obstacles in the way of Turkey's direct military engagement in the IDF-Hezbollah dispute as a member of NATO. Before the recent Gaza crisis, relations between Israel and Turkey had improved; but, in May, Ankara stopped all trade with Israel.
