Erdogan: Türkiye’s steps to improve relations with Egypt and Syria aim to form a line of solidarity against the Israeli threat
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that Muslim countries should form an alliance against what he called the growing expansionist threat from Israel, drawing criticism from Israel’s foreign minister.
Erdogan made the comments after Palestinian and Turkish officials said a woman with dual US-Turkish citizenship was shot dead by Israeli forces while taking part in a march against settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank on Friday.
“The only step that will stop Israeli arrogance, bullying and state terrorism is an alliance of Islamic countries,” Erdogan said at an event for an association of Islamic schools near Istanbul.
He added that Türkiye’s recent steps to improve its relations with Egypt and Syria were aimed at forming a line of solidarity against the growing expansionist threat, which he said also threatened Lebanon and Syria.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Erdogan’s statements were a dangerous lie and incitement, and that the Turkish leader had been working with Iran for years to undermine moderate Arab regimes in the region.
Erdogan hosted his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el Sisi in Ankara last week, and they discussed the Gaza war and ways to mend long-frozen relations, during the first visit by an Egyptian president to Türkiye in 12 years.
Relations between the two countries began to improve in 2020, when Türkiye began diplomatic efforts to ease tensions with countries in the region, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Erdogan said in last July that his country would invite Syrian President Bashar al Assad at any time for possible talks to restore relations between the two neighbors, which were severed in 2011 following the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.
The Israeli military said after Friday’s incident that it was investigating reports that a foreign woman was killed as a result of gunfire in the area. Details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was injured are under review.
There has been no immediate comment from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on the incident.
