In the long list of controversial statements, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan added a new one: he compared Israel’s military actions in Gaza with those of Hitler that ended in the Holocaust. Furthermore, Erdogan made these statements to an Israeli television channel and thus at a time when the two countries attempt a rapprochement.
Speaking to Israel’s Channel 2, Erdogan said he could not decide whether the Holocaust or Israeli military offensives in Gaza were “more barbarous”.
“I don’t agree with what Hitler did and I also don’t agree with what Israel did in Gaza. Therefore there’s no place for comparison in order to say what’s more barbaric,” said Erdogan in the interview (which was translated from Turkish into Hebrew by Channel 2, and thence into English for this report) when reminded of his 2014 comments where he had said Israeli’s military actions is “barbarism that surpasses Hitler.”
Asked if he was conscious of the shock his reference to Hitler caused among Jews, Erdogan said “I’m very well aware… But is the Jewish community aware of what is done (in Gaza)? Thousands of people bombed in Gaza and Palestine” in the 2014 war with Hamas.
PS Israel was about to send again an ambassador to Ankara. Will it proceed after Erdogan’s remarks?
Hmmm, Israel might conduct in Gaza in ways that cannot hold up to scrutiny but comparing that with Hitler and not seeing which one is worse, then you really don’t have a full understanding of the scale and severity of what Hitler did. Or Stalin for that matter. What the hell is wrong with the likes of Erdogan? Oh, and let’s compare Israel’s conduct in Gaza with that of the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian genocide. I guess Hitler learned a few things of that…
Actually Hitler pointed that out in front of his commanders, shortly before invading Poland: “Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?” on Aug 22nd 1939, in his famous “Obersalzberg Speech” commanding to kill as many Polish men, women and children as possible.
But one doesn’t need to go back that far in history, as just like the USA is still occupying some 500 nations Turkey is doing the same with Kurdistan, Armenia and Greek areas of Asia Minor, and this is why all this illegal settler-nations stick together – only South Africa got her freedom so far.