Turkey’s Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday confirmed reports that the Turkish government is imposing a total ban on imports and exports from Israel due to its support for the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas.
President Erdoğan: “Trade between the two countries was $9.5 billion” Said Friday reporters. “We ignored this volume and closed the door.”
In comments on Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan again accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of unfairly targeting Palestinian civilians in the ongoing self-defense operation against Hamas, calling Netanyahu “relentless.” Turkey’s president opposes the operation, which aims to neutralize the group’s ability to invade and destroy Israel, because it allegedly targets Palestinian civilians overrun by Hamas. are doing. Netanyahu’s government authorized the operation in response to the massacre of an estimated 1,200 people, the abduction of 2,500 people, and the widespread torture, gang rape, and desecration of corpses of Israelis during Hamas’ October 7 siege of Israel.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was one of the first world leaders to defend Hamas after the October 7 atrocities, repeatedly insisting that Hamas is “not a terrorist organization” and likening Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
At a rally called “Gaza: Stop the Genocide, End Impunity” to support the Palestinians and demand an immediate ceasefire, demonstrators held the Palestinian flag and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin, a convert to Nazi Germany leader Adolf Hitler. – Holding up a placard with a portrait of Netanyahu. (Nicolas Maeterlinck/Berga/AFP via Getty Images).
In his remarks on Friday, Erdogan accused Israel and “all Western countries” of opposing Hamas and of “sparing no effort to execute impoverished Palestinians.”
Mr. Erdoğan’s announcement This comes after the Turkish Ministry of Trade announced on Thursday that the Turkish government would suspend all import and export ties with Israel.
“Since the first day, our country has rushed to the relief of the people of the Gaza Strip, delivering tens of thousands of tons of humanitarian aid to the region by ship and plane, especially food, health and medical aid,” the Trade Ministry claimed. , “During these difficult days, you evacuated thousands of patients and supported our Palestinian brothers and sisters.”
According to the Trade Ministry, Turkey will not resume trade with Israel until Turkey allows what it considers to be an “uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
Both countries are each other’s top trading partners.Of the $9.5 billion in trade between the two countries, an estimated $5 billion represented Exports from Turkey to Israel were taking place before the two countries began restricting commercial exchanges.
Turkish authorities initially restricted trade with Israel on April 9, identifying 54 items that Turkish companies could no longer legally sell to Israeli companies, including construction materials, chemical fertilizers and steel. In response, Israel asked private companies to restrict trade with Turkey. Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned at the time that Jerusalem would “react accordingly and Israel will prepare an expanded list of additional products that will be blocked from Turkish exports.”
On Thursday, the Israeli government said it was continuing efforts to clarify the terms of the embargo originally announced by the Turkish Trade Ministry.Katz issued However, another statement accused Erdogan personally of having “crossed the line” with the new measures.
“This is the behavior of a dictator who tramples on the interests of Turkish people and businessmen and ignores international trade agreements,” Katz said. “I have instructed the Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to immediately consult with all parties to find alternative solutions regarding trade with Turkey.”
“Israel has a strong economy and will become even stronger from this. We will win, but they will lose,” he asserted.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey has made some of the most flamboyant moves in the international community to support Hamas.The president clearly declared On October 25, less than a month before the unprecedented siege of Israel, he said, “Hamas is not a terrorist organization. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Mujahideen Protect their land. ”
Palestinian militants representing armed units of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Committees of Resistance, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Abu Rish Brigades gather in the border town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip (Khatib/AFP News Agency, Getty Images) via).
Erdogan also led a crowd of what the Turkish government claims was 1.5 million people at an event in Istanbul called the “Great Palestinian Rally” that month, where he reiterated his claim that Hamas is “not a terrorist organization” and that Israel is declared itself a Palestinian organization. A “war criminal” nation.
More recently, in late April, President Erdoğan welcomed Hamas’s “political” leader Ismail Haniyeh to Istanbul to discuss cooperation.
president @RETerdogan He met with Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, at the Dolmabahçe presidential palace in Istanbul. pic.twitter.com/L1haaOyRpX
— President of Turkiye Republic (@trpresidency) April 20, 2024
“As long as God allows, I will be the voice of the oppressed Palestinian people,” Erdogan declared in a speech announcing the April visit of Haniyeh, a member of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP). [him] life. “
“When no one else would speak up, we stood up and said, ‘Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it’s a resistance group,'” Erdogan said. boasted.
Turkey has also accused the government of targeting civilians in operations against Hamas and is seeking to play a leading role in bringing cases against Israel to international tribunals. On Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced that Turkey would seek to join South Africa’s ongoing case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of “genocide.” Neither South Africa nor Turkey have similarly condemned Hamas’s act of genocide on 7 October or its apparent genocidal intent to destroy the state of Israel.
