ISTANBUL, July 29. /TASS/. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statement that Turkey might "enter" Israel will have regional and international implications, but this option is unrealistic in practice, Huseyin Bagci, a leading Turkish expert on international security issues and head of the Ankara Global Advisory Group, has said.
"The Turkish president's statement will certainly entail a number of consequences in regional and international terms. At the same time, it seems practically impossible for Turkey to intervene in Gaza at its sole discretion the way it did in Libya or Karabakh. This would not be in the interests of NATO, the US, Russia, or China. A solution [to the Palestinian problem] can be found with the support of global powers and countries of the Arab world. This is not a national issue of Turkey, but a problem of the Arab world that has been smoldering for years," Bagci told TASS.
At the same time, he did not rule out that Erdogan's remarks at a meeting with party activists in the Black Sea province of Rize were addressed primarily to the domestic target audience.
Erdogan's harsh statement
On July 28, Erdogan said Turkey could "enter Israel" in the same way it once entered Nagorno-Karabakh and Libya. To do so, he said, we need to be strong. Erdogan's latest harsh statement against Israel was broadcast by local TV channels on July 28. At the same time, the Turkish leader did not explain in detail what his phrase "to enter Israel" might imply.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded to Erdogan's remarks by saying that he could suffer the fate of Saddam Hussein, who led Iraq from 1979 to 2003 and was executed in 2006.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry responded by saying that for the crimes of genocide "Netanyahu will end like Hitler."
Relations between Israel and Turkey have deteriorated sharply since the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that began in October 2023. The two sides have repeatedly exchanged harsh remarks and mutual accusations. In late October 2023, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced the withdrawal of diplomats from Ankara "in order to reassess Israeli-Turkish relations." Turkey, too, recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv for consultations.