No one expected the Turkish government to beam the Israeli flag onto Istanbul’s Bosphorus bridge in solidarity with the victims of the Hamas attacks of October 7th. However, after those heinous attacks against civilians that claimed over 1,400 lives, Israel has not received even one message of solidarity from any of Turkey’s political elites.
At first, Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seemed to resist his aggressively anti-Israel instinct and called for “restraint” from “impulsive steps that will escalate tensions,” but still he couldn’t bring himself to condemn Hamas or offer condolences to Israel.
The most he could say was “We openly oppose the killing of civilians on Israeli territory,” only to add, “We will continue to stand against any attempt and any occupation to erode the historical and religious status of our first qibla, the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” and that it was “our duty to stand with the oppressed.”
Erdogan declared that the explosion was “the latest example of Israel’s attacks that are devoid of fundamental human values.” He later described Israel’s actions as “genocide against the people of Gaza” and “savagery with no precedent in history.”
The Huda Party, the political branch of Turkey’s Islamist and extremely violent Hezbollah (no relation to the Lebanese group of the same name), organised a bunch of Hamas flag-waving protests in the Southeast and talked about the “barbarism of Zionism” while adding that they stand squarely with the “Mujahadin” and “the path of resistance and Al-Aqsa Jihad.”
Another Islamist party, Saadat, stood with Hamas from the get-go and co-organized several of Istanbul’s pro-Hamas rallies where signs were hung that read, “Down with USA and Israel.”
Not to be outdone, Ahmet Davutoglu, the once obscure academic with incoherent ideas about international relations who went on to became Turkey’s incompetent foreign minister and then prime minister, before being ousted by Erdogan, stated that, “I support the justified resistance of our Palestinian brothers.”
A week later Davutoglu posted a montage of Hamas fighters on paragliders, referencing one of the means they used to infiltrate southern Israel, with images of Davutoglu embracing Hamas leaders with the words “Selam Olsun,” meaning “greetings” or “salutations.”
What about Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the soft-spoken secular Turkish opposition leader often dubbed ‘Turkey’s Gandhi’? Surely, he showed at least some compassion to Israel after the 7 October Hamas attack?
Nope. He said “We are always with the Palestinian people,” and little else.
But Kilicdaroglu is facing a leadership race to stay at the head of the Republican People’s party. What did Ozgur Ozel, a significant challenger have to say? Ozel has been vocal about the importance of establishing dialogue with Turkey’s Kurds. Perhaps Ozel might offer a more moderate voice.
Wrong. The day after Hamas’ attacks just as Israel began its retaliatory strikes he said, “I condemn Israel’s attacks on Gaza, which caused the death of 198 Palestinians.”
And that was it. Just a reference to Israel’s initial reprisals. Nothing about Hamas’ butchering and kidnapping of Israeli civilians.
Meral Aksener, the leader of the right-wing IYI Party said that Hamas’ action amounted to terrorism, but she said this in the context expressing solidarity with the Palestinians. And after responsibility for the deadly attack on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was misattributed to Israel, Aksener declared that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “the new Hitler.”
The spokesperson of the leftist and Kurdish oriented Green Left Party İbrahim Akın said that it could not “defend the massacres committed by Hamas,” and the Workers’ Party of Turkey expressed similar sentiments; however, they all caveated it with deep expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians, and not with Israel.
For its part, immediately after Hamas’ crimes on 7 October, Turkey’s Communist Party (TKP) condemned Israel and what they called “the bourgeois media” and “hypocritical imperial centers.” Ditto Selma Gurkan, the director of Turkey’s Labour Party who saw Hamas’ attack as a result of “Zionism’s mass murders.”
In other words, even before the recent hospital attack in Gaza – that caused widespread international concern and condemnation regardless of the difficulties in ascertaining who was actually responsible – there was unanimous opposition to expressing any solidarity with Israel among Tukey’s political elite.
That’s not to say Turkey’s political spectrum is united, despite the meeting of minds over Israel and Gaza. It remains as divided as ever. In a telling protest in Istanbul, leftist groups shouted slogans supporting the (Marxist-secular-national) Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine while Islamists stood in the same rally but in a separate section shouting support for Hamas, while waving Palestinian and Hamas flags.
Since the hospital bombing, and despite Israeli culpability looking increasingly doubtful, Turkey’s Israel-hatred and sometimes outright antisemitism, is no longer a wave but a tsunami.
“Yahudi Kur’an’daki Yahudi” roughly translating to “the Jew as described in the Koran” is a leading trend on X (formerly Twitter), where users cite verses from the Quran to highlight how holy scripture predicted the nefarious behavior of Jews.
In recent days Jewish lives have been threatened, the Israeli consulate in Istanbul and the embassy in Ankara were attacked with stones firecrackers, and Israel advised that all Israelis should leave Turkey immediately. Security has been stepped up in synagogues and community buildings with many afraid to send their children to school. The Islamist daily paper, Yeni Akit, ran a blaring antisemitic frontpage headline calling for all Jews to be denaturalized from Turkish citizenship because they are “natural citizens of Israel.”
Throughout the crisis public figures from political leaders to preachers have praised Hitler and called for the destruction of Jews. So intimidating is the environment, the Jewish community, which prefers to stay out of political affairs, felt obliged to send out a statement in light of the Gaza hospital attack condemning “the targeting, killing of innocent civilians, especially at hospitals, schools, nursing homes or similar places, regardless of circumstances.”
Turkey seems to have forgotten the support it received from Israel during its own times of crisis.
When Turkey was reeling from its largest terrorist attack, the October 2015 Ankara bombings that claimed the lives of 109 civilians attending a protest rally, Israel’s then President Reuven Rivlin sent a swift letter of condolence to President Erdogan, expressing heartfelt words of solidarity and sympathy.
In July 2016, after Turkey experienced a bloody attempted coup by a military faction of the Gulen movement, followers of U.S. resident Fethullah Gulen, which Ankara declared its 9/11 moment, Israel expressed support for Ankara in the early hours of the following morning, adding that “Israel respects the democratic process in Turkey.” In other words, support for the government of Erdogan. The following day Turkey thanked Israel for its continued support during its crisis.
Earlier this year, after Turkey was rocked by a massive earthquake in the Hatay region in the Southeast that claimed over 50,000 lives and caused untold destruction, Israel sent a large international humanitarian aid delegation. Israel was one of the first international responders on the ground. An Israeli team used cutting edge technology to save the lives of 19 people including a small toddler.
As the violence between Israel and Hamas escalates in Gaza, Turkey will seek to have a role in brokering dialogue and discussions. However, before Turkey gets involved, it needs urgently to get its own house in order.
Dr. Simon A. Waldman is a visiting lecturer and tutor at King’s College London and the co-author of ‘The New Turkey and its Discontents’ (Hurst/OUP, 2017). Twitter: @SimonWaldman1
