Journalists who staunchly support the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are suggesting that Palestinians in Gaza should relocate to other Muslim countries, echoing a plan promoted by US President Donald Trump and attracting intense backlash online.
Columnists Taha Kılınç and İsmail Kılıçarslan, both regular contributors to the Islamist Yeni Şafak daily, have proposed that the continued loss of life in Gaza might be mitigated by encouraging residents to “migrate,” using the religiously loaded term “hijrah” in Turkish, to countries such as Turkey, Indonesia or Algeria.
Kılınç argued that Israel’s military onslaught has rendered the territory unlivable and that Muslim nations should accept Gazans as refugees to “end the massacre.”
Critics say framing the idea as hijrah, or sacred migration, serves to normalize forced displacement and echoes proposals by Trump and Israeli officials to depopulate Gaza and permanently change its demographic makeup.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 people, according to local health authorities. The campaign has included the destruction of residential neighborhoods, hospitals and civil infrastructure. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is currently hearing a case brought by South Africa, which accuses Israel of committing genocide. Amnesty International has concluded that genocide is taking place, and Human Rights Watch has found that Israel is committing acts of genocide.
In November 2024 the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the campaign in Gaza.
Despite official Turkish opposition to Trump’s plan, the recent commentaries by Kılınç and Kılıçarslan are being interpreted by some as a trial balloon — a coordinated effort to gauge public reaction before a potential shift in Ankara’s policy.
“It’s time to start discussing the relocation of people in Gaza. If Muslim countries can’t stop the killing, then at least they should open their doors,” Kılınç said in an article published on Wednesday.
He acknowledged that such a move would align with Israeli and American goals to evacuate Gaza but suggested that the worsening humanitarian crisis might justify it. “One of the solutions is migration,” he wrote, invoking the term that carries religious resonance in Islamic tradition.
Kılıçarslan, appearing on a television program earlier this week, offered similar remarks, saying, “If Gazans want to migrate, let them. No one should speak on their behalf.”
The suggestions have sparked outrage across Turkish social media platforms. Critics accused the writers of manufacturing consent for a policy that would amount to ethnic cleansing and warned that the Turkish government may be preparing to support or facilitate Trump’s proposal behind the scenes.
“Is this how the Erdoğan government plans to align with Trump?” journalist İslam Özkan wrote. “We are now in the phase of slowly introducing and normalizing this idea for the Turkish public.”
Other commentators suggested a political bargain may be at play, speculating that Ankara’s quiet acceptance of Gaza’s depopulation could come in exchange for international leniency on domestic repression or other concessions from the United States.
The Turkish government has not commented on the backlash or the pro-relocation remarks. President Erdoğan has previously condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide and opposed Trump’s relocation proposal. However, the appearance of such an argument in the state-aligned media has fueled speculation about a possible policy reversal by Erdoğan, a move observers say would not be unprecedented, given past shifts on other major issues.