Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country is opposed to anyone that stands by Israel, which he accused of engaging in state terrorism in Palestine.
At a meeting of his Justice and Development Party in Ankara, Friday, Erdogan also called on world powers not to remain silent in the face of Israel's behavior in the Palestinian territories.
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He said Turkey would not accept countries remaining silent "against the state terrorism that Israel has been fearlessly engaging in Palestine. Everybody should know that we are opposed to anyone that stands by Israel."
Erdogan said, "The ones who turn a deaf ear to the cry of Palestinians whose houses are being demolished in east Jerusalem and doomed to hunger in [the] Gaza [Strip] and who encourage" those who do not respect Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque "are destroying their values with their own hands."
Israel and Turkey were once close allies, but relations between the countries have steadily cooled since Erdogan, whose party has roots in Turkey's Islamist movement, became prime minister in 2003.
The erosion in relations hit an all-time low in 2010, when Israeli naval commandos raided a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was trying to breach the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. A violent clash on the boat resulted in the deaths of 10 activists and prompted Turkey to recall its ambassador and scale back military and economic cooperation with Israel.
Bilateral ties were restored in the summer of 2016, when the Knesset voted to compensate the families of those killed. However, Erdogan has continued to maintain a steady stream of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric aimed at his Islamist base and at Islamist supporters in the region, especially Iran.
