"[Israelis] have become a burden that humanity can no longer bear." That wasn't an Iranian ayatollah, a Hamas spokesman, or even a Columbia University professor. It was Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, representing NATO’s second-largest military, speaking on Turkish television last week. Israel's foreign minister called it textbook incitement to genocide. In the same interview, Fidan said Ankara has "no problem with confrontation if it comes to that."
This is no longer rhetoric without consequence. Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Turkish and Israeli forces have operated in close proximity in Syria—the two countries now effectively share a border there. In 2025, it was reported Turkish F-16s and Israeli aircraft came into direct contact in Syrian airspace during an Israeli strike, prompting urgent talks on a deconfliction mechanism, though Turkey denied this happened. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called Zionism an existential threat to Turkey and asserted that Israeli operations in Syria and Lebanon endanger his country. His interior minister vowed last month that Turkey would one day retake Jerusalem.
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Joseph Epstein is Director of the Turan Research Center.