ANKARA:
\nTurkish President Tayyip Erdogan hinted on Sunday that Turkiye might intervene in Israel to support Palestinians, similar to its past actions in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.
\nErdogan, a vocal critic of Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza, made these remarks during a speech highlighting Turkiye\u2019s defence industry.
\nErdogan, speaking at a meeting of his ruling AK Party in Rize, stated, \u201cWe must be very strong so that Israel can\u2019t do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them.\u201d
\nHe added, \u201cThere is no reason why we cannot do this\u2026 We must be strong so that we can take these steps.\u201d
\nThe comments, which were broadcast on television, did not specify the nature of the potential intervention. Representatives from the AK Party did not provide further details, and there was no immediate response from Israel.
\nErdogan\u2019s remarks appeared to reference Turkiye\u2019s previous military actions. In 2020, Turkiye deployed military personnel to Libya to support the United Nations-recognised Government of National Accord. Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah, leading the Government of National Unity in Tripoli, is supported by Turkiye.
\nAlthough Turkiye has denied direct involvement in Azerbaijan\u2019s military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh, it has admitted to using \u201call means,\u201d including military training and modernisation, to aid its ally. This historical context suggests Erdogan\u2019s comments might be an indication of Turkiye\u2019s readiness to support Palestinians through similar means.
\nErdogan could end up like Saddam: Israel
\nIsraeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has warned that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could end up like former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was toppled and executed by a US-backed coalition, if he attempts to intervene in the Gaza war.
\nErdogan traded threats with Israeli officials on Sunday over the IDF\u2019s ongoing military operation in Gaza, as well as rapidly escalating tensions with Lebanese-based armed group Hezbollah. Speaking at a rally in his hometown of Rize, Erdogan suggested that T\u00fcrkiye could \u201center\u201d Israel in order to help the Palestinians.
\n\u201cWe must be very strong so that Israel can\u2019t do these ridiculous things to Palestine,\u201d Erdogan said. In the past he has condemned Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany \u2013 and likened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
\nKatz responded with a warning of his own on X (formerly Twitter). \u201cErdogan is going down the path of Saddam Hussein and threatens to attack Israel,\u201d he wrote, adding that the Turkish leader \u201cshould just remember what happened there and how that ended.\u201d
\nIsraeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also blasted Erdogan, calling him a \u201cdanger to the Middle East\u201d and a \u201cwannabe dictator.\u201d
\n\u201cThe world, and especially NATO members, must strongly condemn his outrageous threats against Israel and force him to end his support for Hamas,\u201d Lapid wrote on X.
\nSaddam Hussein was overthrown during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. He went into hiding, but was eventually caught by US troops, convicted by an Iraqi court of crimes against humanity, and executed by hanging in 2006.
\nThe US under President George W. Bush claimed at the time that the Iraqi leader had connections to Al-Qaeda \u2013 a group behind the 9\/11 terrorist attacks \u2013 and had weapons of mass destruction. Both claims later turned out to be false, but Washington used them as rationale for attacking Iraq, despite having failed to secure the approval of the UN Security Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan hinted on Sunday that Turkiye might intervene in Israel to support Palestinians, similar to its past actions in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh. Erdogan, a vocal critic of Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza, made these remarks during a speech highlighting Turkiye\u2019s defence industry. Erdogan, speaking at a meeting of his ruling AK Party …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":68061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68068,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68043\/revisions\/68068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}