On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip in a post on X in which he wrote: “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.”
Omer Celik, spokesperson of the ruling Islamic-oriented Justice and Development Party, or AKP, said Israel’s comments aimed to sabotage the peace talks in Pakistan, foment unrest among the Kurdish minority and pit Turkey against Iran.
Numan Kurtulmus, the speaker of Turkey’s parliament, called Netanyahu “the ringleader terrorist of the 21st century’s massacre and terror network.”
“The audacity of someone whose hands are stained with children’s blood — someone pursued by international law — to presume to lecture Turkey on morality is merely an indicator of his efforts to cover up his own crimes against humanity, and it holds no validity whatsoever,” Kurtulmus continued.