Britain’s TV news channel, GBNews, headlined an April 12 report with the following: “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has issued a stark statement warning that Ankara would launch military operations against Israel over Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.” The same outlet broadcast that “Turkish Foreign Minister (Hakan Fidan), went on to describe Israel’s Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) as ‘the Hitler of our time due to the crimes he has committed.’”
Responding to Erdoğan, Netanyahu wrote on X: “Israel under my leadership will continue to fight Iran’s terror regime and its proxies, unlike Erdogan, who accommodates them and massacred his own Kurdish citizens.”
Erdoğan, a megalomaniacal figure, considers himself both the caliph and sultan of Turkey’s Sunni-Muslim believers and has ambitions to expand his influence beyond the country’s borders, seeking to resemble the former Ottoman Empire. Such aspirations pose a significant threat to Israel and to peace in the region.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who considers him to be a friend, should recall Erdoğan’s stances and reconsider this relationship. For example, Erdoğan betrayed NATO by buying the S-400 multi-layered surface-to-air missile system from Russia and, along with his proxies, has butchered Kurdish civilians and fighters of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who have been U.S allies in the fight against ISIS.
Most recently, despite being a NATO member, Turkey sought neutrality. It denies claims that it helped U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran by allowing its airspace, territory or bases to be used for military operations against Iran; this alone clearly demonstrates the unreliability of today’s Turkey as an ally.
According to the Foreign Affairs Forum, a Dubai-based outlet, there are serious allegations of ethnic-cleansing campaigns taking place against Kurdish residents in northwest Syria—a massive campaign to evict Kurdish residents from their ancestral homes and replace them with Syrian Arab settlers. Turkish assaults have reduced the Kurdish population in some areas, such as Afrin, by up to 60%. A settlement-building project, announced by Erdoğan in 2023 and financially supported by Qatar, aims to relocate 1 million Syrian Arab refugees into traditionally Kurdish areas.
Erdoğan seized on the coup that took place on July 15, 2016, to eliminate political rivals and consolidate power. According to Politico, 250 people were killed by regime forces, 1,400 were injured, and 2,839 were detained in the failed coup. To further fortify his power, Erdoğan switched from being prime minister to president. In the aftermath, he has shaken up the government, cracked down on dissidents and restricted the news media. He has arrested and imprisoned journalists who criticize his policies, thereby “killing” freedom of the press in Turkey.
And on Feb. 20, NBC News reported that Turkish authorities had formally arrested investigative journalist Alican Uludağ, charging him with insulting Erdoğan in a series of social-media posts.
Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party have achieved what has long been the aim of Islamists in Turkey—to expand the role of Islam in Turkish society and its institutions. He has seized power from the country’s secularist parties and placed his followers in pivotal branches of government, including the judiciary, commerce and the media.
Following the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey was established on Oct. 29, 1923, by a military commander and an imposing political figure, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He became Turkey’s first president, enacting reforms which came to be known as the Ataturk Reforms or Kemalism. He focused on severing ties with the Ottoman past, which he viewed as backward and overly Islamist. His ideology, rooted in secularism, liberal republicanism and a modern version of Islam, became the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, earning him the title of Atatürk, the father of Turkey.
Erdoğan’s authoritarianism has replaced the Kemalist principles of secularism with Islamist fundamentalism to fulfill his desperate desire to revive the caliphate and become its caliph.
Conservative columnist George Will spoke out on a YouTube video, warning that Erdoğan threatens to use its thermobaric “Gazap” mega-bomb against Israel. It can destroy an entire large city and its people. This bomb contains almost one ton (970 kilograms) of high explosives and a high-fragmentation warhead capable of dispersing 10,000 metallic fragments upon impact while simultaneously generating massive overpressure waves and heat signatures that can incinerate enemy personnel and melt infrastructure in seconds.
Inasmuch as Trump recognizes Israel as a loyal and dependable ally, he should be calling attention to this threat to Israel. American and Western media have ignored this significant threat to Israel, while Trump has neither mentioned it nor rebuked the Turkish dictator. The use of such a bomb by Erdoğan against an Israeli city would force Israel to retaliate with a doomsday option—that of a nuclear bomb, which would bring hell on earth to the entire region.
It is time for the Trump administration to demand that Turkey end its threats against Israel; halt financing to Hamas terrorists and cease providing sanctuary to them; end the ethnic cleansing of the Syrian Kurds; transfer the Russian S-400 system to the United States so that the United States might learn how to make its F-35 fleet invulnerable to America’s enemies; and stop all aid to the Iranian economy.
Washington must also revisit the Biden administration’s decision to sell F-16 fighters until Turkey aligns with American interests and conducts itself as both an ally and a member of NATO.
The United States must recognize that Erdoğan’s Turkey is not only a threat to Israel but ultimately a threat to the West.
