Erdogan: “Netanyahu’s Murder Network Now Threatens Turkey”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Wednesday that Israel's military operations in Syria and Lebanon have reached a point where they now directly threaten Turkey, calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's actions a "network of murder" that endangers Ankara's security.
Speaking to lawmakers from his ruling AK Party in parliament, Erdogan said Turkey's security is tied to that of Syria and Lebanon, and that the international community's silence has emboldened Israel to continue what he called unchecked aggression. He called on world powers to take a clear stance and said reining Israel in had become "a shared duty for all of humanity."
"Reining Israel in has become a shared duty for all of humanity" — Erdogan
Erdogan also turned his attention to Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean, accusing Israel of leading a "sneaky effort" to destabilize African countries and the Mediterranean region. He claimed Israel was "igniting the fire of discord" on the ethnically divided island of Cyprus, and warned that unnamed regional actors had become "Zionist subcontractors" pursuing what he called pipe dreams in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Turkish president issued a direct warning: if the rights of Turkey and Turkish Cypriots are violated in the Eastern Mediterranean, Ankara's response will be, in his words, "very clear and very strong." He did not elaborate on what actions that response might include.
Turkey halted all trade with Israel last year and has pushed for action against it at international courts. Erdogan has previously blamed Israel's "provocations" for triggering the wider US-Iran conflict, and his government has been among the loudest voices in NATO condemning Israeli military operations across the region.
