Turkey issued a harsh rebuke of Israel on Thursday, condemning its latest aerial attacks in Syria and calling on Israel to pull out of Syrian territory and stop obstructing efforts aimed at stabilizing the war-torn nation.
“Israel has become the greatest threat to regional security” and is a “strategic destabilizer, causing chaos and feeding terrorism,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated.
The ministry continued, “Therefore, in order to establish security throughout the region, Israel must first abandon its expansionist policies, withdraw from the territories it occupies, and stop undermining efforts to establish stability in Syria.”
These comments came in the wake of Israeli Air Force operations targeting military installations in Hama and the T-4 airbase, as well as other military facilities around Damascus.
Israeli security officials explained that the strikes were designed to thwart what they described as an impending Turkish incursion into the region.
Meanwhile, Syrian officials also blasted the Israeli strikes, accusing Israel of deliberately working to destabilize the country.
According to a statement released by Syria’s Foreign Ministry, the Israeli actions are “an unjustified escalation which is an intentional attempt to undermine the stability in Syria.”
Turkey has intensified its vocal opposition to Israel’s military campaigns, including its most recent condemnation earlier this week of Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.
“These attacks have once again exposed Israel’s flagrant disregard for international law and its ongoing threat to the region’s security and stability. The international community must stand united against Israel’s efforts to create a perpetual state of conflict in the region,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry asserted.
In a counterstatement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry fired back, taking aim at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “While violently suppressing his own citizens and carrying out mass arrests of political opponents, [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan presumes to preach lofty values to the international community.”
“In Erdogan’s Turkey, there is no justice, no law, and no freedom. Israel does not need Erdogan’s ridiculous moral sermons. Israel acts to defend itself and its citizens against real threats and actual attacks — and it will continue to do so,” the statement concluded.
Erdogan’s condemnations of Israel have grown increasingly severe since the conflict in Gaza erupted on October 7, 2023. Prior to that, Turkey and Israel had been slowly repairing their fragile diplomatic relationship.
Following Israeli strikes in Gaza last month, Erdogan launched into another tirade, branding Israel as a “terror state.”
“The Zionist regime has once again shown that it is a terror state that feeds on the blood, lives and tears of the innocent with its brutal attacks on Gaza last night,” Erdogan declared.
The Turkish leader has also been unapologetic in his backing of Hamas. In April, he welcomed then-Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh to Istanbul — a figure who was subsequently killed in a targeted Israeli operation in Tehran.
Shortly after that meeting, Erdogan proudly revealed that more than 1,000 Hamas operatives were receiving medical care in Turkish hospitals and criticized Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for referring to Hamas as a terror group.
{Matzav.com}