Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of committing “genocide” against the Kurdish people after the NATO leader compared Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
“They used to talk bad about Hitler. What difference do you have with Hitler? They’re going to make us miss Hitler. Is what Netanyahu is doing less than what Hitler did? It is not,” Erdogan told reporters in Ankara, according to Reuters.
“He is richer than Hitler and receives support from the West,” he added. “All kinds of support come from the United States. And what did they do with all this support? “They killed more than 20,000 Gazans.”
Erdogan, 69, has long criticized Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians and has called on world leaders to stop the Jewish state’s war against the Hamas terror group following its Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
Netanyahu responded to Xsaying: “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.
The Turkish leader has been very outspoken against Israel’s war against Hamas since it broke out on October 7. Turkish Presidency Press Office/AFP via Getty Images
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.
The IDF, which is the most moral army in the world, is fighting to eliminate the most…
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) December 27, 2023
“The IDF, which is the most moral army in the world, is fighting to eliminate the world’s most abhorrent and brutal terrorist organization, Hamas-ISIS, which has committed crimes against humanity, which Erdogan has praised and whose leaders it embraces. .”
Turkey’s population includes between 15 and 20 million Kurds, most of whom live in the east and southeast of the country.
The Turkish government has repeatedly crushed Kurdish rebellions since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, and the pro-autonomous Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been classified as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department since 1997.
Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israeli soldiers fighting in northern Gaza on Christmas Day. AP
In 2019, then-President Donald Trump maneuvered to pull U.S. forces out of Syria, paving the way for Erdogan’s forces to attack Kurdish fighters there and sparking an international outcry.
As recently as this week, Ankara has carried out airstrikes against Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria.
The fight over the Kurds quickly emerged as a point of friction when Sweden and Finland sought to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Both nations imposed an arms embargo on Turkey after the 2019 attacks on Kurds in Syria, which has since been lifted.
Turkey’s relationship with its NATO allies has been somewhat acrimonious in recent years. REUTERS
Turkey has also taken issue with Sweden hosting exiled PKK members, accusing the government in Stockholm of supporting terrorism.
On Tuesday, the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee approved Sweden’s candidacy for NATO, inching it closer to full membership.
Turkey has the largest military of any NATO member after the United States, but has often been a nuisance to its Western counterparts.
Syrian Kurdish women carry banners as they demonstrate against Turkish threats to launch a military operation in their region in 2019. AFP via Getty Images
Beyond the Kurds, Turkey has clashed with Greece, a NATO member that has a history of conflict with Ankara dating back centuries.
Human rights concerns have also been raised about Erdogan’s domestic crackdown following a failed coup in 2016.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn