Turkish president accuses Israel of running concentration camps; Netanyahu accuses Erdogan of genocide of Kurds.
By David Rosenberg, World Israel News
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traded accusations of genocide Wednesday, as relations between the two countries continues to sour amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
During an address at an Ankara gathering, Erdogan compared Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, saying the Israeli premier was “no different than” the Nazi leader.
The Turkish president also claimed Israel operates concentration camps.
“We’ve seen the Nazi camps of Israel. How does this happen? They used to talk about Hitler, but how are you any different than Hitler?”
“This is even worse than Hitler,” Erdogan continued. “What Netanyahu is doing is no less than what Hitler did.”
“Hitler was not as rich as [Netanyahu] is,”
“He is richer than Hitler. He takes support from the West, he receives all kinds of support from the US, and with all that support, 20,000 Gazans have been killed.”
Shortly afterwards, Netanyahu fired back in a public statement, accusing Erdogan of orchestrating the genocide of Turkey’s Kurdish minority.
“Erdogan, who is committing genocide against the Kurds and who holds the world record for imprisoning journalists who oppose his regime, is the last person who can preach morality to us,” Netanyahu said.
“The IDF, which is the most moral army in the world, is fighting to eliminate the most abhorrent and brutal terrorist organization in the world, Hamas-ISIS, which has committed crimes against humanity, and which Erdogan has praised and whose leaders he hosts.”
The long-running feud between the two leaders, which seemingly had abated following the Turkish-Israel rapprochement beginning with President Isaac Herzog’s March 2022 visit to Ankara, was reignited recently, following Erdogan’s accusations of genocide in Gaza.
The Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7th and Israel’s military response derailed efforts to overcome a years-long diplomatic row between the two countries, which began with the seizing of a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, which attempted to run Israel’s security blockade of the Gaza Strip in May 2010.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who worked to repair Israeli ties with Turkey last year, condemned Erdogan Wednesday, calling the Turkish president’s comments “deeply offensive.”
“I strongly condemn and utterly reject the words of Turkish President Erdogan.”
“In all of human history, the Holocaust stands alone in its horror and enormity, and his words are deeply offensive to every Jew around the world, and to the memory of the millions of Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis.”
“The command ‘Never Again’ remains an imperative for the State of Israel – the nation state of the Jewish people – which is committed to the safety and protection of every Jew.”
“There is no struggle more just than the war against the terrorist organization Hamas, which brutally and barbarically murdered Jews, as well as Muslims, and those of other faiths and nationalities.”