2023-10-26 21:05:03
by Monica Ricci Sargentini
The Turkish president makes his Islamic faith prevail over the country’s strategic interests, thus distancing himself from the West. In 2014 he compared Israel’s actions to those of Hitler
What is the difference between the actions of Israel and those of Hitler? Recep Tayyip Erdogan shouted to his supporters in 2014 during a rally for his re-election as president. And four years later in front of his deputies in Ankara he said: Israel is the most Zionist, fascist and racist state in the world, the spirit of Hitler dwells in some of today’s Israeli leaders. And again: Today, Palestinians are subject to pressure, violence and policies of intimidation no less severe than the oppression inflicted on Jews during World War II. The Turkish leader’s pro-Hamas position is not new but since then relations with the Jewish state had relaxed for strategic and economic reasons.
Today’s news on the war between Israel and Hamas, live
Erdogan: Israel is massacring Palestine
Then the turnaround. The attacks on Gaza have already exceeded the limit of self-defense and have become massacres, cruelty and barbarism, Erdogan said during a conference broadcast today on state television TRT. The European Commission said yesterday that it cannot ask for a ceasefire, how many children will still have to die to achieve this? They talk about human rights but have been ignoring the rights of the people of Gaza for 19 days.
The Pope to Erdogan: I hope for a two-state solution
This morning there was also a phone call between the Turkish president and the Pope who expressed his sorrow at what is happening and recalled the position of the Holy See, hoping that we can arrive at a two-state solution and a special statute for the city of Jerusalem according to what the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, reports.
Israeli President Herzog’s visit to Türkiye in 2022
Yet progress had been made in the Israel-Turkey relationship. In 2022, Israeli President Isaac Herzog went to Ankara, giving a signal of a new direction. And Erdogan himself planned to visit the Jewish state soon. At the end of September in New York the Turkish leader had bilateral talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A relationship also linked to the fight against a common enemy, Iran, Armenian supporter against Azerbaijan, but also to the need to be part of the energy geopolitics in the eastern Mediterranean, starting with the EastMed gas pipeline project.
After the bloody attack on October 7 against Israel, Ankara had once again attempted a difficult balancing act. On the one hand supporting the Palestinian cause, on the other trying not to lose contact with Israel. An ambiguous attitude that Hamas did not appreciate at all. In an interview with Haberturk TV last week, Khaled Mashal, a senior figure in the terrorist organization, complained: Turkey should say “stop” to Israel, he said. A few days ago, rumors also spread that the leaders of Hamas had been ordered to leave the country. A piece of news which was then flatly denied on X by the Turkish government.
Yesterday, however, the clear stance in favor of the Palestinian terrorist organization arrived and shocked the West which had just received the Sultan’s yes to Sweden’s entry into NATO. Until now the Turkish president had managed to play on two tables: friend of the West and NATO, supporter of the Palestinian cause. A balancing act impossible to sustain after October 7th.
It should be noted that Ankara has materially supported Hamas since 2011. Its leaders, including Khaled Mashal, Ismail Haniyeh and Saleh al-Arouri, have met openly with Erdogan many times. The latter have Turkish passports and residence which allow them to travel between Istanbul and Doha, the capital of Qatar which hosts the organisation’s headquarters. What unites Turkey, Qatar and Hamas is the idea of political Islam, according to the dictates of the Muslim Brotherhood so dear to the Sultan.
Erdogan’s anti-Israeli positions were well known. In 2009 at the World Economic Forum in Davos he rebuked the then Israeli president Shimon Peres, accusing his government of killing Palestinian children. In 2010 he then sent an aid flotilla to Gaza to breach the Israeli navy’s blockade, a mission that led to the Mavi Marmara incident, which was stormed by Israeli special forces.
In this way, however, the Turkish president sacrifices Turkey’s strategic interests to his Islamic faith. He has already announced the launch of another aid flotilla to Gaza and his intention to coordinate a response to the ongoing Israeli military operation in Gaza with his Iranian counterpart, President Ebrahim Raisi at a time when many Western governments are question the extent of Iran’s involvement in the attacks. In this way Erdogan confirms the West’s deepest suspicions about his true affinities.
October 26, 2023 (modified October 26, 2023 | 9:04 pm)
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