Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday slammed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after Turkish authorities asked Interpol to issue international arrest warrants for Netanyahu and dozens of other senior Israeli officials.
“Erdogan is an antisemitic dictator who has massacred Kurds, harbors Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus, and jails record numbers of journalists and politicians who oppose him. He now seeks to extend his aggression against Israel into Syria. Israel will not tolerate it," said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.
“Erdogan’s pathetic attempt to intimidate the leaders and soldiers of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, will go nowhere," the statement stressed.
Turkey’s request was submitted as part of criminal proceedings being conducted in absentia at Istanbul’s 11th High Criminal Court.
According to reports, the charges relate to Israeli forces’ takeover of the “Global Sumud" flotilla, which attempted to breach Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and was stopped by Israel in international waters. So far, there is no indication that Interpol has accepted the request.
Ankara and Jerusalem had been moving toward renewed diplomatic ties before the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist massacre in southern Israel, but relations deteriorated sharply afterward. Turkish officials, particularly Erdogan, have since repeatedly criticized Israel.
In March of last year, Erdogan described Israel as a "terror state" after Israeli preemptive strikes against terrorist infrastructure in Gaza. He later said Netanyahu's government represented the single greatest threat to stability in the Middle East.
Erdogan renewed his criticism last week, accusing Israel of seeking to remove the Palestinian Arab issue from the international agenda.
Earlier this week, Israel struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Syria after Syria was close to violating a security understanding by allowing Turkish forces to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo.
Turkey rejected the Israeli explanation, accusing Jerusalem of attempting to justify an attack on Syrian territory.
Ankara further accused Netanyahu of pursuing regional expansion and destabilization for political purposes ahead of elections in Israel.
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)