Turkey’s leader on Sunday threatened military intervention against Israel to stop Jerusalem’s war in Gaza, a sharp escalation in rhetoric from Nato’s second-largest military.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a meeting with the Justice and Development Party (AKP) that Turkey “has to be very strong so that Israel can do these ridiculous things to Palestine”.
“Just like we went into Karabakh, just like we went into Libya, we will probably do something similar to them,” he said, according to Reuters.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a joint statement to the media on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Baghdad, Iraq. The annual event is accused of encouraging “gender neutrality” and threatening traditional families. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AP Pool Photo)
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Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz returned with a wavering tone, suggesting Erdogan would face a similar fatal fate to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who Yin was hanged in 2006.
“Erdogan is following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and threatening to attack Israel. Let him remember what happened there and how it turned out,” Katz said in a message posted to X, which included Erdogan and Photo of the former Iraqi leader.
IDF operations in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah. (Office of the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson)
Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the U.S. State Department, Turkey’s embassy in Washington or NATO for comment on how they are working to ease tensions between the NATO countries and the West’s top allies in the Middle East.
The threats from the Turkish president come as Israel faces increasing aggression from Iran-backed Islamist militants, including Hamas, the Houthis and the Hezbollah terror group.
Erdogan did not elaborate on what Turkey’s military intervention would entail, although he has repeatedly harshly criticized the Gaza war.
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Displaced Palestinians arrive in central Gaza after fleeing Rafah on Thursday, May 9. (AP/Abdul Karim Khana)
“There is no reason why we cannot do this… We have to be strong so that we can take these steps,” Erdogan told AKP officials.
The Turkish leader appeared to be referring to military actions taken by the Turkish capital Ankara in 2020, when Turkey sent troops to defend Libya’s UN-recognized Government of National Accord in a civil war that first broke out in 2014.
Turkey denies direct involvement in Azerbaijan’s military operations in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and claims to be conducting “anti-terrorism” operations against Armenian rebels in the region. However, by 2023, Ankara reportedly said it was using “all means” to support its allies, including military training.
Smoke rises as Israel launches an attack near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on March 28, 2024, amid ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by AFP)
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to publicly respond to Erdogan’s comments, although he and the Turkish leader have frequently traded accusations over the years.
Netanyahu and Erdogan have both compared the other to Adolf Hitler because of Turkey’s long war against Kurdish militants and Israel’s hostilities against the Palestinians.
