Turkey has condemned Austria for supporting Israel and flying the Israeli flag. Erdogan said Austria was “trying to make Muslims pay for the Jews they subjected to genocide.” In short, the argument was that Austria was somehow punishing Muslims for the Holocaust.
Ankara then called Israel a “terror state.” In 2019, Erdogan compared Israel to Nazi Germany. At the time, the pro-Turkey stance of the Trump administration and the US State Department, some of whose officials were pro-Turkey, did not condemn the comments.
The current US administration is different, and Ankara does not get the green light to host Hamas and bash Israel as much as it used to.
The US on Tuesday strongly condemned the recent comments emanating from Turkey. State Department spokesman Ned Price said: “We urge President Erdogan and other Turkish leaders to refrain from incendiary remarks, which could incite further violence. Antisemitic language has no place anywhere.”
The comments by the leadership of the AKP are also represented in far-right media in Turkey. Yena Safak, a newspaper that caters to the populist Right in the country and is close to the regime, argued for Turkey to lead an Islamic alliance to attack Israel.The alliance would include Turkey, Iran, Qatar, Malaysia and Pakistan, countries that either back Hamas or are close to the Muslim Brotherhood. Ankara had consulted with Tehran last week about how to confront Israel, and Turkey has called on the pope and others to encourage sanctions against the Jewish state.
Compared with Turkey’s rhetoric against Israel, Iran’s has been relatively muted. Turkey has become one of the most anti-Israel states in the world, and its constant anti-Israel rhetoric, fed through its state-controlled media that run the most outlandish articles about Israel, fuels antisemitism in Turkey and abroad. Turkish flags can be seen at many antisemitic rallies in Europe.
This is a relatively new phenomenon, as Ankara encourages its European diaspora to play a more aggressive role. At one rally in Vienna, when a man shouted, “Shove your Holocaust,” there was widespread cheering among the men and women present, including a man with a Turkish flag.Reuters contributed to this report.
He did not specify which Erdogan remarks the US considered antisemitic.
The comments by the leadership of the AKP are also represented in far-right media in Turkey. Yena Safak, a newspaper that caters to the populist Right in the country and is close to the regime, argued for Turkey to lead an Islamic alliance to attack Israel.The alliance would include Turkey, Iran, Qatar, Malaysia and Pakistan, countries that either back Hamas or are close to the Muslim Brotherhood. Ankara had consulted with Tehran last week about how to confront Israel, and Turkey has called on the pope and others to encourage sanctions against the Jewish state.
Compared with Turkey’s rhetoric against Israel, Iran’s has been relatively muted. Turkey has become one of the most anti-Israel states in the world, and its constant anti-Israel rhetoric, fed through its state-controlled media that run the most outlandish articles about Israel, fuels antisemitism in Turkey and abroad. Turkish flags can be seen at many antisemitic rallies in Europe.
This is a relatively new phenomenon, as Ankara encourages its European diaspora to play a more aggressive role. At one rally in Vienna, when a man shouted, “Shove your Holocaust,” there was widespread cheering among the men and women present, including a man with a Turkish flag.Reuters contributed to this report.
