Turkey on Tuesday slammed Foreign Minister Israel Katz in the wake of Katz’s recent criticism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“The Israeli Foreign Minister has made a habit to make banal statements full of slander and lies targeting Türkiye and our President,” said a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, quoted by the Anadolu news agency.
“For some time now, the person in question cannot be taken seriously,” the statement said, adding that Turkey will continue to support the Palestinian Arabs in the “strongest possible way.”
A spokesman for Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) offered even harsher criticism of Katz and likened him to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s top diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop.
“Israeli Foreign Minister Katz is a carbon copy of Hitler’s Foreign Minister Ribbentrop,” said the spokesman, Omer Celik, according to the Daily Sabah newspaper.
Prior to the war in Gaza which was prompted by Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, Turkey had been working to mend its long-strained ties with Israel.
However, since the start of the war, Erdogan has resumed his frequent verbal attacks on Israel.
In one speech, the Turkish President said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “committed one of the greatest atrocities of this century in Gaza and has already put his name down in history as the butcher of Gaza."
Katz has consistently responded to Erdogan’s attacks. Last month, after the Turkish President called on NATO to stop its cooperation with Israel, Katz wrote, “Erdogan declares at the NATO summit that he will not allow NATO to cooperate with Israel.”
“First of all, Erdogan, you decide nothing. Furthermore, a country like Turkey, which supports the murderers and rapists of Hamas and the Iranian axis of evil, should not be a member of NATO,” added Katz. “You disgrace Ataturk's legacy!”
Last week, Erdogan threatened to invade Israel, saying, "We must be strong so Israel won't be able to do these things to the Palestinians. Just as we entered Karabakh and Libya, we will do the same to Israel. There's nothing left to do, we must be strong."
In response, Minister Katz wrote on X, “Erdogan is following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and threatens to attack Israel. He should remember what happened there and how it ended.”
Erdogan then continued to lash out at Israel, claiming that Israel "committed acts of barbarism that will outshine and that "Gaza has become the world's largest concentration camp."