Pro-government media personalities, staunch supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who joined an international flotilla to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza, have sparked criticism at home after videos showed them smiling and laughing about their experience upon their return from Israeli custody.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, organized by international pro-Palestinian groups, set sail in early October to symbolically deliver aid and break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. Israeli naval forces intercepted the vessels in international waters, detaining more than 400 participants, including more than 40 Turkish citizens. A special Turkish Airlines flight brought 137 deported activists, among them 36 Turks, back to Istanbul on October 4, while others remain in custody.
Videos of TV presenter Bekir Develi and poet/host İkbal Gürpınar, who were among the Turkish returnees, smiling or laughing while recounting their experience circulated on Turkish social media and TV. That attitude — not the participation itself — triggered a backlash among supporters of Gaza, who argued it looked celebratory while people in Gaza are suffering.
Şamil Tayyar, a senior figure in Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), wrote on X that while the flotilla “deserved every praise,” the images of some returnees “giggling and celebrating like sports fans” had “pained hearts” at a time when tens of thousands have died in Gaza.
Other voices on social media echoed that sentiment. Some accused the pro-Erdoğan activists of traveling to Gaza “for entertainment,” while others called the footage “very regrettable.”
There was also criticism of a wider record of contradictions in Turkey’s Israel policy.
Pro-Palestinian activist Gülşah Eldemir contrasted pro-Erdoğan flotilla participants’ treatment in Israel with the arrest of Turkish citizens protesting Ankara’s trade with Israel at home and argued that trade between Turkey and Israel undercuts the flotilla’s message.
While Ankara announced a trade ban in May 2024, shipments continued through third countries until ports and airspace were closed to Israeli vessels in August 2025. Turkish Airlines recently unveiled a plan to buy 225 aircraft from Boeing, a company whose defense arm produces JDAM kits documented in Gaza strikes. Rights groups and UN experts have warned that such procurement risks complicity.
Since October 2023 UN experts, rights groups and courts have warned that Israel’s siege, bombardment and forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza meet the definition of genocide.
The International Court of Justice has issued three sets of provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent genocide, allow aid and halt operations in Rafah. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch concluded in December 2024 that Israel was committing genocide. Israeli groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel documented systematic attacks on hospitals and denial of medical aid in 2025, and they also said Israeli authorities are committing genocide in Gaza.
On September 1 the International Association of Genocide Scholars said Israeli actions meet the legal definition of genocide. On September 16 a UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, citing killings, conditions of life calculated to bring destruction and statements by senior Israeli officials. A day later, major aid agencies warned governments that inaction risked complicity.