Erdoğan has consistently accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Recently, Turkey’s Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz criticized Israel’s vote recognizing the Armenian genocide as “an attempt to cover up their own crimes.” Israel has firmly denied these accusations of genocide.
The focus is on the Ottoman Empire’s campaign, which resulted in the deaths of over 1 million Armenians and is widely acknowledged by scholars as the 20th century’s first genocide. Many EU countries acknowledge these events as genocide, and in 2015, the European Parliament passed a resolution marking the centenary of the events.
Several scholars also view Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.
In his Tuesday address, Erdoğan claimed Israel’s recognition is invalidated by its “barbarity in Gaza” and Turkey’s record of saving Jews from the Holocaust during World War II.
“There is the virtue of protecting those who fled from … Nazi persecution,” Erdoğan remarked. “Those who slander Turkey and the Turkish nation … know this best, if they look at their own history.”
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication.
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