Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, one of the most outspoken critics of the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, has accused US President Joe Biden and his administration of complicity in atrocities in Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip, Newsweek reported.
Erdoğan, who was in Washington to attend a NATO summit, gave an exclusive interview to the US magazine on the sidelines of the meeting.
Erdoğan said he and US President Biden have different views on a range of issues including the Israeli attacks on Gaza, which were launched in retaliation for an unprecedented attack by the militant group Hamas on October 7, leading to the killing of around 1,200 people in Israel, while 251 others were taken hostage.
“We believe that the brutal murder of innocent people by Israel in hospitals where they go for treatment, in ambulances, in marketplaces, in centers where humanitarian aid is distributed, and in areas defined as safe is the gravest violation of human rights. The US administration, however, disregards these violations and provides Israel with the most support. They do so at the expense of being complicit in these violations,” Erdoğan told Newsweek.
The US has been providing Israel with weapons since the start of the conflict and is accused by critics of exacerbating the death toll and destruction in Gaza, where at least 38,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed so far by Israel, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Erdoğan, who refuses to recognize Hamas as a terrorist group unlike his country’s Western allies, accuses Israel of committing a “genocide” and “war crimes” in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
Before departing for the NATO summit in Washington on Tuesday, Erdoğan promised to bring up the “ongoing massacre of Palestinians” at the hands of Israel during the alliance’s three-day meeting, which wrapped up Thursday.
Erdoğa said in the interview that what is taking place between Israel and Gaza is not a war, but rather Israel’s attacks against Gaza that disregard human rights and international law and the resulting massacres. He also accused Israel of turning Gaza into an open-air prison and being engaged in systematic state terrorism for years and usurping Palestinians’ homes, businesses and farmlands.
Erdoğan said Israel’s threats against the countries of the region, particularly Lebanon, and its attempts to spread the conflict across the region must stop, warning that the region faces a greater risk of deeper conflicts and even war.
Erdoğan attacks Gülen
In the Newsweek interview, the Turkish president also criticized the US administration due to its refusal to extradite Turkish-Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen to Turkey.
Gülen, who has been living in the US since 1999, is accused by Erdoğan and his government of masterminding a failed coup in July 2016 and is deemed a “terrorist.” Gülen and his movement strongly deny any involvement in the failed putsch or any terrorist activity.
Erdoğan likened the Gülen movement, which has opened schools and culture centers worldwide to promote education and intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, to the radical Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
“Just like DAESH, which has carried out terrorist acts in various parts of the world. Both DAESH [the Arabic acronym for ISIL] and FETO are killing people. Both DAESH and FETO exploit people’s religious feelings. Both DAESH and FETO aim to harm the countries in which they operate. FETO intends to infiltrate the governments of the countries where it operates and seize control of the system. This includes the United States,” Erdoğan claimed.
FETO is used by Erdoğan and his government to refer to the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization. None of Turkey’s Western allies recognize the movement as such.
Thousands of Gülen followers who had to flee Turkey to avoid a massive crackdown on real and perceived Gülen followers in the aftermath of the coup attempt have been granted asylum in Western countries.
“With tangible evidence, we explained the hazards of this structure to the president of the United States. However, Mr. Biden and I have different views on this matter,” Erdoğan said.
Turkey has sent multiple extradition requests to the US government while pursuing a worldwide crackdown on followers of Gülen following the coup attempt. US officials have expressed on several occasions that although Turkey presented them with a large quantity of information about Gülen, the files didn’t include sufficiently clear evidence of his involvement in the abortive putsch.