Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has sharply escalated his rhetoric against Israel (the nationstate of God’s chosen people) to the point where military conflict between the two countries is no longer merely a theoretical possibility. In a recent address to the Turkish Parliament, he said the Jewish state “has become increasingly arrogant” and “a source of threat not only for the region but also for humanity.”
Erdoğan said Israel’s continuing efforts to degrade the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon and other jihadist groups in Syria now pose a threat to Turkey itself. He added that Lebanon and Syria are “within Turkey’s geography of love and brotherhood” and that “we will not tolerate . . . any [Israeli attack] against our brothers.”
The Turkish president then compared Israel to Nazi Germany and declared, “Israel must be stopped; this is the duty of humanity and the humanitarian front. History must not be allowed to repeat itself.”
Referring to Israel, Erdoğan concluded, “We already know your intentions, your aims, your goals very well. We see very well what you are pursuing. We are very well aware of the ultimate goal of the Promised Land delusion. With Allah’s permission, we will never allow this.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded, “The antisemitic dictator Erdoğan—who is committing genocide against the Kurds, supports the Hamas terrorist organization, oppresses his own people and imprisons political rivals—is the last person who can lecture the State of Israel on morality. The State of Israel and the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], the most moral army in the world, will continue to take forceful action against Iran and its proxies, which threaten the Middle East and the entire world.”
Middle East analyst Yoni Ben Menachem noted that Turkey’s confrontational stance vis-à-vis Israel is about more than security. “It has deeper historical and ideological roots,” he wrote. “Turkish political discourse increasingly uses ideas about its historical role in the Middle East. It draws on rhetoric from the Ottoman legacy.”
Erdoğan has long championed neo-Ottomanism, a political ideology that seeks to elevate Turkey’s influence in all areas of the former Ottoman Empire, including Jerusalem, which the Turkish Empire ruled for 400 years. Nostalgia for Turkey’s past glory has intensified in recent years and is not confined to Erdoğan.
A few days before Erdoğan’s anti-Israel speech, Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi declared that his country could bring about the “liberation” of Jerusalem and vowed to “return it to Turkish hands.” He said, “Just as we have witnessed the liberation of Damascus, Aleppo, and Karabakh, Allah willing, one day we will also witness the liberation of Jerusalem. . . . As in the past, those places will be ours again. They will once again be under our rule and control, Allah willing. Because we have a global leader like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at our head. A world leader.”
Even politicians opposed to Erdoğan are embracing neo-Ottomanism. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), who has long opposed Turkish expansionism, recently said, “Look at the lands of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey must go to that geography and develop its own identity there. We must go there not by shrinking, but by growing. Turkey must be present in the Ottoman geography.” He vowed, “We will soon pray together in Jerusalem in gratitude.”
Israeli diplomatic correspondent Itamar Eichner believes that the uptick in Turkey’s anti-Israel rhetoric is partly being fueled by recent changes to the regional balance of power. Erdoğan is “attempting to strengthen Turkey’s standing in the Arab world following the weakening of Iran after its recent conflict with Israel and the United States,” he wrote. “By intensifying criticism of Israel, analysts say, Erdoğan may be seeking to position Turkey as a rival center of influence to Tehran.”
