Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has hailed a “fruitful” meeting with US President Donald Trump and Arab and Muslim leaders on ending Israel’s war in Gaza, even as he faced accusations at home of hypocrisy over his government’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists and continued trade with Israel.
The talks, held Tuesday on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly, brought together the leaders of Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Trump called the meeting “successful,” boasting that “all of the big players except Israel” were at the table.
No details of a concrete plan have been released, though US media reported Washington is urging Arab and Muslim states to deploy peacekeeping forces in Gaza to allow Israel to withdraw and to fund reconstruction.
The Emirati state news agency said the discussion focused on securing a cease-fire, the release of hostages at the hands of Palestinian militant group of Hamas and Gaza’s worsening humanitarian crisis.
Israel, whose bombardment has killed more than 65,000 people according to local authorities, was not directly involved, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly briefed.
Domestic backlash
While Erdoğan sought to cast himself as a defender of Palestinian rights in his UN speech, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, opposition figures at home accused him of double standards.
“The president sent greetings from the UN podium to Palestine defenders. Perhaps he is unaware that in Turkey, judicial proceedings continue against 245 people for participating in Palestine solidarity protests, some of whom remain in prison,” opposition lawmaker Mustafa Yeneroğlu said on X.
In the most prominent example in December 2024, nine pro-Palestinian activists, were placed in pretrial detention for protesting Erdoğan over Turkey’s alleged ongoing trade with Israel.
The activists, who had interrupted Erdoğan’s speech at the TRT World Forum in İstanbul, accused the president of hypocrisy for allegedly facilitating crude oil shipments to Israel despite Turkey’s public stance against Israeli military actions in Gaza.
They were charged with “insulting the president” and participating in an unlawful demonstration.
Özgür Özel, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), contrasted Erdoğan’s meeting with Trump to his party’s street-level activism. “While some wait in line for an appointment with Netanyahu’s friend Trump, we stand with Palestine with courage,” he said, urging citizens to join a rally in İstanbul’s Eyüpsultan district on Wednesday evening with Turkish and Palestinian flags.
Erdoğan will also be hosted by Trump at the White House on Thursday. It will be the first visit to the White House by Erdoğan since 2019 during Trump’s first term in office, with former president Joe Biden having a tense relationship with the Turkish leader he accused of autocratic behavior.
Özel has been accusing Erdoğan of neglecting Palestinian concerns to secure a meeting with Trump. He claimed that Erdoğan bargained with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s older son, who allegedly met secretly with Erdoğan in İstanbul on September 13 in an effort to arrange a meeting with his father.
Neither the presidency in Ankara nor Trump Jr. has publicly confirmed a meeting in İstanbul. “They are doing business with Trump’s son through lobbying companies while Palestine is bleeding,” Özel told supporters at a rally last week.
Trade contradictions
Beyond restrictions on protests, Erdoğan’s critics continue to point to Turkey’s economic ties with Israel as evidence of hypocrisy.
In May 2024 Ankara announced it was halting all direct trade with Israel in response to public anger over the war. But data from the United Nations International Trade Statistics Database from May show Turkey was Israel’s fifth-largest supplier last year, with exports worth $2.86 billion, behind only China, the United States, Germany and Italy. Israel’s total imports in 2024 reached $91.5 billion.
Critics and opposition figures argue the figures undermine Erdoğan’s fiery rhetoric, which has included comparing Netanyahu’s government to Nazi Germany and accusing Israel of “genocidal behavior.”
Erdoğan’s UN rhetoric
In his General Assembly address, Erdoğan repeated those accusations, insisting the conflict was not a fight against terrorism but “an occupation, deportation, exile, genocide and destruction of life.”
“A genocide is continuing in Gaza; even as we meet here, innocent people are dying,” he said. “On one side, there is a regular army with the most modern weapons, and on the other, innocent civilians, innocent children.”
Israel’s war on Gaza was triggered when Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage on October 7, 2023.
Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have said Israel’s campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide. Earlier this month, the International Association of Genocide Scholars also concluded it meets the definition of genocide under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
A UN commission has found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing tens of thousands of civilian deaths and massive destruction, and accused Prime Minister Netanyahu and other top officials of incitement of genocide.
Israel rejects those allegations, saying its military operations target Hamas and are carried out in self-defense.