ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday lambasted IsraeliPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “oppressor” after he accused Turkeyof “massacres” against Kurds in a new war of words.
Netanyahu hit back in a speech later Sunday, calling Erdogan an”anti-Semitic dictator” who is “obsessed with Israel.”
Relations between Turkey and Israel have been tense this year over multipleissues including a controversial law passed by the Israeli parliament inJuly which defined the country as the nation state of the Jewish people.
“You are an oppressor, cruel and at the head of state terror,” Erdogan saidof Netanyahu.
In a televised speech in Istanbul, the president also accused Israel of”occupying Palestine” as well as committing “sins, crimes against humanity,massacres”.
The latest diplomatic row began after Erdogan warned young Turks onSaturday: “Do not kick the enemy you have brought down to the ground. Youare not a Jew in Israel.”
Netanyahu told Erdogan in a tweet late on Saturday that he “should notpreach to Israel” as “the occupier of northern Cyprus, whose army massacreswomen and children in Kurdish villages, inside and outside Turkey”.
Before Erdogan’s comments on Sunday, his chief advisor Ibrahim Kalin hitout in a tweet at Netanyahu who he accused of using Erdogan “bashing… asa political chip” in a bid to save himself “from his domestic troubles”.
On December 14, Erdogan also said Palestinians were subjected to”pressures, violence and intimidation policies no less grave than theoppression done to the Jews during the Second World War”, referring to theHolocaust.
Turkey-Israel ties have been strained since Ankara ordered the Israeliambassador to leave Turkey in May over the killing of protesters along theborder with the Gaza Strip.
Erdogan, who regards himself as a champion of the Palestinians, hasbitterly criticised Israel previously, calling it in July “the world´s mostfascist and racist state”.
However despite the heated rhetoric, experts point to strong economic tiesand robust trade between the two countries. -APP/AFP