“May Allah, for the sake of his name… destroy and devastate Zionist Israel.”
If you were to guess who said that, you might say it was one of the mullahs of Iran. And it would be a reasonable guess.
The right answer, though, is Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who said it in March last year.
The irony is that, while Iran has been a rogue state for almost half a century, Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952, and a candidate for European Union membership since 1999, while maintaining close security, economic, and diplomatic ties with the Euros.
Erdoğan has also “accus[ed] Jerusalem of genocide in Gaza, welcom[ed] ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders… called on the UN to recommend the use of force against Israel,” “compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler,” and threatened a Turkish invasion of Israel.
For good measure, on June 7, Erdoğan’s interior minister called for Turkey to “liberate” Jerusalem.
And Turkey’s hostility to Israel is not just rhetorical—far from it. Israel’s domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, announced on June 21 that it had:
…foiled dozens of planned terror attacks in the West Bank directed by Hamas operatives in Turkey in the past year…
“Over the years, and with increased intensity over the past year, operatives in the West Bank Headquarters have been directing and advancing extensive military activity into Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and Israel from Turkish soil, including recruiting operatives to carry out attacks and transferring weapons and funds into the area to advance military activity,” the agency said…
The Shin Bet said the Hamas operatives “carry out their activities unhindered from Turkish territory,” and exploit “infrastructure in the country to transfer instructions and funds” to terrorists in the West Bank.
Again, it may sound more like Iran, but for years, Turkish leader Erdoğan has provided Hamas a safe haven from which to orchestrate terror attacks in Israel.
And while Erdoğan has a special animus toward Israel, his regime is increasingly autocratic and plays a disruptive international role.
Under Erdoğan, Turkey’s democracy—previously flawed and fragile, but relatively successful in the Islamic world—has all but vanished. Freedom House now rates Turkey “Not Free” and cites:
…the imprisonment of political opponents, independent journalists, and members of civil society… After the ruling party suffered significant losses in municipal elections in 2024, the government launched criminal investigations that led to arrests of hundreds of opposition party representatives in 2025.
Erdoğan’s Turkey, with its neo-Ottoman ambitions, also claims Greek islands and territorial waters and harasses Greek shipping; has taken over parts of northern Syria and backs the al-Sharaa regime—which Israeli intelligence does not regard as a budding democracy but as a severe security threat; and targets Kurdish factions in both Syria and Iraq. Turkey is also spreading its tentacles to Libya and sub-Saharan Africa.
And amid all that, Erdoğan’s Turkey has cultivated a virulent anti-American ethos.
All this is worth taking into account by Western leaders as Turkey keeps trying to augment its NATO and EU status.
President Donald Trump, who seems to find Erdoğan personally charming, now seeks to sell Turkey $700 million worth of jet engines and possibly have it rejoin the F-35 fighter-jet program. Both moves have already sparked bipartisan objections from Congress. Israel and Greece are particularly alarmed about Turkey having F-35s.
Meanwhile, with a NATO Summit scheduled for July 7-8 in Ankara, no less, Erdoğan proclaims that “As one of the countries with a say in developing the European pillar of the alliance, we want to participate in all defense and security initiatives on the continent.”
Western leaders seem to want to overlook the fact that Erdoğan is not a leader upholding Western norms but a ruthless dictator and terror patron striving to expand his power. Strengthening him means strengthening the threat he poses to international stability and to his own population.
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