New Delhi: Israel has announced the recall of its diplomats from Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan unleashed a scathing attack on Israelis while addressing a nearly 1.5 million-strong crowd at a pro-Palestine rally in Istanbul Saturday.
“Given the grave statements coming from Turkey, I have ordered the return of diplomatic representatives there in order to conduct a reevaluation of the relations between Israel and Turkey,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Saturday in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
In his address at the pro-Palestine rally in Istanbul, Erdogan said Western powers were the “the main culprit” behind the “massacre” of Palestinians in Gaza.
“If we leave aside some conscientious voices… the massacre in Gaza is entirely the work of the West,” he said, adding that Israel was behaving like a “war criminal”.
“Of course, every country has the right to defend itself. But where is the justice in this case,” he asked as the crowd jeered, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags.
“I reiterate that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation,” he added.
Erdoğan also said that Israel has been “openly committing war crimes for 22 days”, but its allies in the West “cannot even call on Israel” for a ceasefire, let alone react to it.
The Turkish President had until now taken a cautious approach to the conflict since it began on 7 October when Hamas carried out a terror attack against Israel — killing 1,400 and taking at least 200 hostage.
While Turkey has officially condemned Hamas’s attacks on Israeli civilians, Erdogan had this week referred to operatives of the Palestinian militant group as “freedom fighters”.
Important to note that the Turkish people are set to observe the 100th anniversary of the creation of Modern Turkey by the republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Sunday. Against this backdrop, media reports suggest that the pro-Palestine rally in Istanbul could dominate newspaper headlines in line with efforts by Erdoğan and his AK Party to undermine the legitimacy of Ataturk who they see as a symbol of ‘Western-facing ideals’.