The foreign minister launched an attack on the outrageous statements of his Turkish counterpart

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar last night (Thursday) strongly attacked the words of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who claimed that Israel is a “problem of all humanity”. In an interview with CNN in the Turkish language, Fidan said: “Israel is not only Turkey’s problem. Everyone knows it and feels it,” he declared. “These people have become a burden that humanity can no longer bear.”

Foreign Minister Sa’ar strongly condemned the statements and stated that this was a clear incitement to genocide. “Dehumanizing the Jewish people and presenting them as an unbearable burden is the classic language of the greatest oppressors in history,” said the minister. “The enlightened world and Turkey’s allies in NATO must unequivocally condemn this explicit call for the destruction of Israel,” Sa’ar pleaded.

The diplomatic confrontation between the two countries recently intensified even more against the background of Sa’ar’s statement of his intention to bring to the government’s approval this week a proposed resolution for Israel’s official recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The draft resolution states that “on the basis of moral and historical obligation, Israel will recognize the genocide committed against the Armenian people at the end of the Ottoman Empire period.” The proposal further states that denial, minimization or distortion of the historical truth on the subject must be condemned.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan quickly responded to the expected Israeli decision and claimed: “Our history is characterized by the virtue of providing asylum to people who escaped the persecutions of the Inquisition and the persecutions of the Nazis.” He went on to say that “those who defame Turkey in an attempt to divert attention from the barbarism they are committing in Gaza, know this better than anyone. If only they would look at their own history.”

In his unusual statement before the Turkish parliament, Erdogan said that Israel’s attacks in Syria and Lebanon have reached the point where they directly threaten Turkey as well. Syria is a very important country for Turkey, which borders it and invests a lot in it, especially since the fall of the Assad regime and the rise of Al-Shara.

Alongside the Syrian-Lebanese arena, Erdogan also referred to the conflict of interests with Israel in the Mediterranean in his threats. “We see ‘naughty’ initiatives led by Israel in the Mediterranean as well. No one should pursue adventures in this region,” said the Turkish leader, adding: “Our response will be clear and strong if the rights of the Turks and Turkish Cypriots are violated in the eastern Mediterranean.”