Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses parliament
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses parliamentReuters

Lutfu Turkkan, a Turkish MP for the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), introduced on Monday a bill to Turkey's parliament which proposes recognizing Israel as “a terrorist state.”

The Turkish deputy began his speech to parliament by referring to the nine Turkish Islamists killed while attacking IDF soldiers aboard the Mavi Marmara, the ship which was part of a flotilla in 2010 aiming to break Israel's blockade on Hamas in Gaza.

He continued by claiming that the Arab-Israeli conflict hasn’t been solved yet purely due to Israel’s "terrorist actions" against Palestinian Arabs, ignoring the numerous peace proposals accepted by Israel and rejected by the Palestinian Authority.

"Israel has intentionally targeted civilians in Gaza, killing mostly women and children," Turkkan charged, and accused Israel of purposefully targeting civilians during the recent 50-day war with terrorists in Gaza - despite evidence of the great lengths to which the IDF went to avoid civilian casualties, and ignoring Hamas and Islamic Jihad's widespread use of human shields during the conflict.

"The State of Israel aimed killing children, senior citizens, and women living in Gaza; when this is taken into consideration, Israel’s crimes meet the definition of ‘terrorism’. It has become an undeniable fact that Turkey should recognize Israel as a terrorist state," he alleged, .

MHP, alternatively translated as "Nationalist Action Party," is a far-right Turkish political party which is currently the second largest opposition faction in the Parliament of Turkey.

The ruling Islamist AKP party, founded by current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been ruling Turkey for the past 12 years. Ankara's support for Gaza-based terror group Hamas; rising anti-Semitism and serious human rights violations in the country during AKP's time in power have prompted concern from various rights groups and governments including the United States government.

But such rhetoric by the member of an opposition party in Turkey raises the worrying prospect that such extremist stances are not limited to Erdogan’s Islamic party.

Turkey’s Parliament will start discussing the bill that is introduced by Turkken, who is a member of parliament for the Kocaeli Province in northwestern Turkey. The bill is officially named "The legislative proposal for the recognition of Israel as a terrorist state by Turkey."