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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened military action against Israel on July 28, a day after 12 children in the Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams were killed by a rocket launched by the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah — which Erdogan supports — as they played soccer. During a televised speech at a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Black Sea city of Rize, Erdogan said, “We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them.”
In the statement, Erdogan referred to Turkey’s provision of arms and training to Azeri troops that assisted Azerbaijan’s military to reclaim the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region from Armenia in 2020 and later toppled the ethnic-Armenian breakaway Republic of Artsakh in 2023. Turkish troops also supported the United Nations-recognized Government of National Accord of Libya during the Libyan civil war in 2020.
Expert Analysis
“Erdogan is no stranger to making inflammatory and escalatory outbursts. He has consistently threatened to invade Greece and Cyprus — major U.S. and European allies. The Biden administration must not ignore or dismiss this as banal rhetoric. At a time when the security of the region is existentially threatened by terrorist entities, specifically Hamas and Hezbollah, the United States must stand by its ally, Israel, and clearly communicate to Turkey, a NATO member, that its threats will not be tolerated.” — Sinan Ciddi, FDD Non-Resident Senior Fellow
“Erdogan’s comments may have far-reaching consequences for Turkey. If Turkey is viewed as a conventional threat to Israel, then U.S. law requires all weapon sales to the country to be evaluated under the Qualitative Military Edge (QME) standards that Congress authorized. Every arms sale to the region is required in statute to be evaluated to determine if it would adversely affect Israel’s QME. Erdogan’s threats may formally require the United States to deny future military sales to Turkey.” — Tyler Stapleton, Director of Congressional Relations at FDD Action
Israeli and European Officials Ridicule Erdogan, Call for Expulsion from NATO
Following Erdogan’s comments, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X that Erdogan was following “in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and threatens to attack Israel. Just let him remember what happened there and how it ended,” adding a photo of Erdogan next to a photograph of the former Iraqi dictator following his capture by American troops. Former Israeli prime minister and leader of the opposition Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid, wrote on X, “President Erdogan is ranting and raving again. He is a danger to the Middle East. The world, and especially NATO members, must strongly condemn his outrageous threats against Israel and force him to end his support for Hamas. We won’t accept threats from a wannabe dictator.”
Geert Wilders — leader of the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands parliament, which won a plurality of seats in the last Dutch general election — called Erdogan an “Islamofascist,” adding, “This guy is totally nuts. Turkey should be kicked out of NATO.”
Turkey’s Anti-Israel Stance Under Erdogan
Erdogan’s statement marks yet another escalation of his rhetoric against Israel since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7. The Turkish leader has compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, as well as calling him a “psychopath” and a “vampire.” Under Erdogan’s administration, Turkey announced that it would join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and suspended trade with the Jewish state.
