Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is no different from Adolf Hitler, drawing parallels between Israel's attacks on Gaza and Nazi treatment of Jewish people.
Speaking at the TUBITAK Awards Ceremony in Ankara, Erdogan stated, "What Netanyahu is doing is no different from what Hitler did."
He also expressed Turkey's willingness to welcome academics and scientists facing persecution for their views on the Gaza war, accusing Western countries supporting Israel of being complicit in what he termed as war crimes.
"They used to speak ill of Hitler. What difference do you have from Hitler? Is what Netanyahu is doing any less than what Hitler did? It is not," Erdogan stated.
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"He is richer than Hitler, he gets support from the West. All sorts of support comes from the United States. And what did they do with all this support? They killed more than 20,000 Gazans," he added.
Netanyahu responded, saying Erdogan should be the last person to lecture Israel.
"Erdogan, who commits genocide against the Kurds, who holds a world record for imprisoning journalists who oppose his rule," Netanyahu said in a statement, "is the last person who can preach morality to us".
This is not the first instance of Erdogan comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. In July 2014, the Turkish president accused Israel of “keeping Hitler’s spirit alive” during a war with Gaza.
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Turkey-Israel Relations
The relationship between the two nations has been up and down for some time.
In late September, Erdogan and Netanyahu held their first publicly known sit-down in New York, discussing potential areas of cooperation.
However, as the death toll in Gaza rose, particularly drawing direct criticism from Turkish politicians, including President Erdogan, the dynamics shifted. In response to Erdogan's accusation of war crimes, Israel recalled its diplomats from Turkey in October. Turkey reciprocated by recalling its ambassador from Israel.
So far, in Gaza, at least 21,110 people have been killed and 55,243 wounded in Israeli attacks.
