Israel Dragging Region Into Disaster Step By Step: Erdoğan

“A destructive war, in which Israel acts as the battering ram, is unfolding in our region at the moment. Innocent children are being murdered brutally as they are attending their classes at schools,” Erdoğan told a group of journalists and writers at an iftar dinner on March 17.

“A network, which holds power and deems themselves superior to other people, is dragging our region into disaster step by step,” he said, referring to the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The United States and Israel staged an unprovoked war against Iran in late February to destroy the latter’s alleged nuclear program, weaken its military capacity and change the regime. Türkiye has condemned the attacks on Iran and also criticized the Iranian leadership to try to spread the fire to the region by targeting the Gulf countries’ energy infrastructure.

Erdoğan slammed Israel for forcing Palestinians to leave their territories and homes and also for disallowing Muslims to use Al-Aqsa Mosque for the past 17 days for arbitrary reasons.

“We all know that [Israeli] attacks targeting Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon and now Iran are not solely motivated by security concerns. It is certainly no coincidence that, simultaneously with the attacks, all sorts of hazy ideas are being brought up, ranging from the delusion of a promised land to doomsday scenarios,” he stated.

It is important that all these developments as well as atrocities imposed by the Israeli authorities are reported in a thorough way by the media, Erdoğan said, stressing that the Turkish media should do more to expose all of this, just like it did during the Israeli genocide in Gaza for the past two years.

“It is essential that we break free from imposed agendas and explain these realities, this barbarity and this state of madness to the world in a way that leaves an impact,” he stated.

“Aware of our status as an influential and powerful nation in the world, we must now broaden our horizons, look beyond our borders, and have journalists, newspapers and television channels that are followed across a wide geographical area."