Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan stirred a hornet’s nest when he recently threatened that Turkiye might physically enshrine the support for Palestinians akin to the recent military operations in Libya and the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. During the meeting of his ruling AK Party in the Black Sea city of Rize, Erdogan condemned the actions of Israel in the Gaza Strip and underlined the necessity of Turkiye’s sufficient power to avoid similar situations in Palestine.
Erdogan said, “We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them. ” He underscored while there is no reason Turkiye cannot take similar steps to support Palestinians, he did not elaborate much on what form this could take.
Most of these remarks were aired on television; however, officials from the AK Party did not provide additional information on the matter, and Israel has not provided a prompt reaction to this announcement.
Türkiye history shows that it has troops to protect its friends. Turan and Akpulat (2021) stated that in the year, 2020, Turkiye deployed its military personnel to Libya to side the United Nations-recognized Government of National Accord. Türkiye has not directly participated in the fights in Nagorno-Karabakh, but it acknowledged that it trains Azerbaijani forces and provides military upgrades. We have seen from Erdogan’s words that Key Turkey might be ready to extend the same backing to Palestine.