Turkey and Israel traded sharp barbs on Sunday, with President Tayyip Erdogan seeming to threaten military action against Israel as tensions heated up between the Jewish state and Hezbollah.
Israel in turn warned that Erdogan’s fate could become akin to that of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who was executed by hanging.
“Erdogan is following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein by threatening to attack Israel. He should remember what happened there and how it ended,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote in a post on X, in which he linked a photograph of Erdogan and Hussein.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Monday compared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in a post on X. “Just as genocidal Hitler ended, so will genocidal Netanyahu,” the post stated.
“Just as the genocidal Nazis were held accountable, those who tried to destroy the Palestinians will also be held accountable,” it added. “Humanity will stand with the Palestinians.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan wrote on X that Erdogan had “become the voice of humanity’s conscience.”
“International Zionist circles, especially Israel, who want to suppress this righteous voice are in great alarm.“History ended the same way for all genociders and their supporters,” Fidan said.
Erdogan threatens to invade Israel
Erdogan said earlier on Sunday that Turkey might enter Israel, as it had done in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, but did not specify the type of intervention he was suggesting.
Erdogan, who has been a fierce critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas, began discussing the war during a speech praising his country’s defense industry.
“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,” Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AK Party in his hometown of Rize.
“There is no reason why we cannot do this … We must be strong so that we can take these steps,” Erdogan added in the televised address.
Erdogan’s threats come amid a dramatic flare-up in the nine-month cross-border war between the IDF and Hezbollah. A Hezbollah-launched Iranian rocket landed in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on Saturday, killing 12 children.
The Turkish leader spoke as the international community is scrambling to avert a larger Israeli-Lebanese war or a regional one.
Turkey’s Erdogan threatened Greece
It is not the first time that Erdogan threatened to invade a neighboring country. In 2022 he used a similar expression against Greece.
He threatened Greece it would pay a “heavy price” if it continued to “harass” Turkish planes over the Aegean.
He was referring to Ankara’s claim that Greek S-300 surface-to-air missiles stationed on Crete locked on a Turkish aircraft west of Rhodes last Sunday, which he referred to as a “hostile act.”
Athens has vehemently denied Turkey’s allegation, with Greek military sources assuring that the S-300s did not lock on to Turkish F-16 fighter jets.
“Hey Greece, take a look at history…If you go further, you will pay a heavy price,” Erdogan told a rally in the Black Sea region on Saturday.
“When the time comes, we will do what’s necessary [, and as] we say, we may come suddenly one night,” he added, using his often-repeated words when he talked about launching an operation into neighboring Syria.
