Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday vowed to “resolutely” work toward a “sovereign and geographically contiguous” Palestinian state with eastern Jerusalem as its capital, Turkish state-run news channel TRT reported.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Ankara with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, Erdoğan accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking to “remove Palestine from the common agenda of humanity by profiting from chaos and new conflicts in the region.”
“They will not succeed,” he added.
Erdoğan said Ankara “strongly opposes” what he denounced as provocations aimed at changes to the status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Jerusalem holy sites, and accused the Jewish state of “unlawful actions” in Judea and Samaria.
The Turkish leader also called for establishing conditions for Gaza’s reconstruction and vowed to continue efforts “to support the Palestinian people and defend their rights.”
Abbas arrived in Ankara on Tuesday afternoon for a two-day visit, Ramallah’s official Wafa agency reported.
Abbas was met at the airport by Turkish Trade Minister Ömer Bolat and the P.A.'s envoy to Ankara, Nasri Abu Jaish, according to the report.
Wafa said the P.A. delegation includes PLO Executive Committee member Ziad Abu Amr; Fatah Central Committee member Maj. Gen. Majed Faraj, who also heads Ramallah’s General Intelligence Service; and Abbas advisers Majdi al-Khaldi and Mahmoud al-Habbash.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich condemned Abbas’s visit, describing the P.A. leader as “an enemy at the head of a terror authority that encourages and funds terror against the State of Israel.”
Smotrich called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent Abbas from returning to Israel and Judea and Samaria, adding that the Palestinian Authority “must be dismantled.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday accused Erdoğan of military aggression “that knows no borders,” saying Ankara occupies roughly 36% of Cyprus, 5% of Syria and 2,000 square kilometers of Iraq, with thousands of Turkish troops stationed across the three countries.
The ministry made the comparison amid Turkish criticism of Israel, writing on X, “Turkey has the audacity to criticize Israel. But what are the facts on the ground?”
Israel, by contrast, “temporarily controls merely 0.1% of Syria,” the ministry said, describing it as “a buffer zone to protect its citizens from proven security threats.”
