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Turkey’s Erdogan Sends ‘Best Wishes’ to Iran After Israel Strike, Continues Fierce Criticism of Jewish State
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave his “best wishes” to Iran and accused Israel of trying to provoke a regional war in the Middle East in response to the Jewish state’s airstrikes against Iranian military targets over the weekend.
Erdogan’s comments continued his hostile posture toward Israel over the past year, during which Turkish-Israeli relations have nosedived amid Israel’s ongoing military operations against two Iran-backed Islamist terrorist groups: Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
On Saturday, over 100 Israeli aircraft targeted missile production sites and air defenses inside Iran, significantly crippling Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities and production capacity. The sophisticated operation was in response to Iran firing more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel earlier in the month, as well as ongoing attacks from its terror proxies in the region, according to Israeli officials.
Responding to the strikes, Erdogan expressed solidarity with Iran and portrayed Israel as the aggressor.
“I extend my best wishes to our neighbor Iran and the Iranian government, which were the target of Israeli aggression last night,” Erdogan said at an event in the southern city of Hatay, according to Turkish media.
The Turkish president also claimed without evidence that Israel was seeking to set a “trap” to start a regional war.
“The Zionist Israeli government is attempting to ignite a regional conflict. It is crucial not to fall into the trap set by Israel and its supporters,” he said. “With this mindset, Israel will achieve nothing. We expect their wrath from Allah.”
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning Israel’s military strikes and similarly accusing the Jewish state of bringing the region toward a broader conflict. The ministry went on to falsely accuse Israel of “committing genocide in Gaza,” preparing to annex the West Bank, and attacking civilians in Lebanon.
“Ending the terrorism created by Israel in the region has become a historic duty in terms of establishing international security and peace,” the statement read, calling on the international community to take steps to avoid further escalation.
The ministry and Erdogan’s comments came two months after Turkey’s Ambassador to Iran Hicabi Kırlangıç lambasted Israel in an interview as “one of the most ruthless enemies” and condemned Western countries for supporting Jerusalem. He also said that Iran’s plan to attack Israel in retaliation for the killing over the summer of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran should be harsh enough to force the Jewish state to “fall to its knees.”
Haniyeh was killed in an explosion in Iran’s capital city on July 31. Iran, the chief international sponsor of Hamas, accused Israel of carrying out the assassination and vowed revenge. The Israeli government has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.
Iran, which initially launched an unprecedented direct attack against Israel in April, also said it would retaliate following Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks that killed the top leaders of its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, including longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
On Oct. 1, Iran acted on its threats, firing nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. The only fatality from the barrage was Sameh Asli, 37, a Palestinian from Jabalia in Gaza. He was killed by missile shrapnel in the West Bank village of Nu’eima, near Jericho, during the attack.
Following Israel’s retaliatory strikes this past weekend, Iranian officials attempted to downplay the severity of the strikes. However, an Israeli weapons systems and intelligence expert told The Algemeiner on Sunday that the Islamist regime’s ballistic missile program will need at least a year to recover from the strikes.
Amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran and its proxies, Turkey has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel — and defenders of Hamas — since the outbreak of the Gaza war last October.
Last month Erdogan said that the United Nations General Assembly should recommend the use of force, in line with a resolution it passed in 1950, if the UN Security Council fails to stop Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
In August, Erdogan declared Aug. 2 a day of national mourning over the killing of Haniyeh.
The announcement came days after Erdogan made an explicit threat to invade Israel, leading Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz to call on NATO to expel Turkey, which has the alliance’s second largest military.
Turkey has reportedly blocked cooperation between NATO and Israel since last October because of the war in Hamas-ruled Gaza and said the alliance should not engage with Israel as a partner until the conflict ends.
Erdogan’s comments were the latest in a recent wave of hostile moves targeting the Jewish state.
Earlier this year, for example, Turkey’s foreign ministry compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
In May, the Turkish trade ministry said it had ceased all exports and imports to and from Israel. The announcement came after Turkey imposed trade restrictions on Israeli exports over Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza following the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 invasion of and massacre across the southern region of the Jewish state.
That followed Erdogan in March threatening to “send Netanyahu to Allah to take care of him, make him miserable, and curse him.” He previously accused Israel of operating “Nazi” concentration camps and compared Netanyahu with Hitler.
Weeks earlier, Erdogan said that Netanyahu was a “butcher” who would be tried as a “war criminal” over Israel’s defensive military operations in Gaza. He has also called Israel a “terror state.”
Turkey hosts senior Hamas officials and, together with Iran and Qatar, has provided a large portion of the Palestinian terrorist group’s budget.
Several Western and Arab states designate Hamas, an offshoot of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, as a terrorist group.
However, Erdogan has defended Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” against what he described as an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.
Israel withdrew all its troops and civilian settlers from Gaza in 2005.
Turkish-Israeli diplomatic relations have nosedived since the Hamas atrocities of last Oct. 7, when the terrorist group that rules Gaza murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped over 250 hostages, launching the ongoing war in the Palestinian enclave.
The post Turkey’s Erdogan Sends ‘Best Wishes’ to Iran After Israel Strike, Continues Fierce Criticism of Jewish State first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Series About Dutch Jewish Woman in Nazi-Occupied Amsterdam Premieres at Venice Film Festival
Venice, 82nd Venice International Film Festival 2025 – Day 7, Photocall for the film “Etty.” Pictured are Hagai Levi – Director, Julia Windischbauer, Sebastian Koch, Claire Bender, and Leopold Witte. Photo: Pool Photo Events 06IPA/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
A six-part television series inspired by the true story of a Dutch Jewish woman who wrote diaries and letters in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam made its world premiere out of competition on Sunday at the 82nd Venice Film Festival.
The Dutch and German-language drama series “Etty” is from Emmy Award-winning Israeli director and creator Hagai Levi, the visionary behind “The Affair,” “Our Boys,” and the remake of Ingmar Bergman’s “Scenes from a Marriage,” which he premiered four years ago at the Venice Film Festival. Levi also created the Israeli television series “BeTipul,” which was remade around the world as “In Therapy” and “In Treatment.” He attended the “Etty” premiere at Venice with the show’s cast, including lead stars Julia Windischbauer and Sebastian Koch.
“Etty” is inspired by the life and diaries of Dutch-Jewish writer Etty Hillesum, who chronicled for 18 months her experiences living in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. She refused to go into hiding and wrote from Amsterdam as well as the Westerbork transit camp. She was deported and murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943 at age 29. Her diary entries and letters were published in 1979 and have gained global recognition. They have since been published in 18 languages.
“In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, 27-year-old Jewish Etty Hillesum begins therapy,” reads a synopsis of the series “Etty,” provided by the Venice Film Festival. “What starts as personal exploration becomes a spiritual awakening, documented in her diaries. Guided by psycho-chirologist Julius Spier, her mentor and lover, she undergoes a radical inner transformation. She’ll discover that even when all is taken, one can remain free within.”
Levi said he discovered a book about Hillesum’s diaries roughly 10 years ago and “after breathless reading, I felt I had found something I could talk about for the rest of my life.” He explained that Hillesum’s diary entries also helped him during his own personal journey and exploration of his Jewish faith.
“I grew up a pious Orthodox Jew. At 20, I left that world forcefully, violently, abandoning questions of God, faith, and meaning,” he said in a director’s statement shared by the festival. “I tried to fill the resulting void — and depression that came with it — with work, ambition, success; mostly in vain. Hillesum offered another option: a different religiosity, a new sense of faith, beyond institutional religion.”
Levi added that at the center of Hillesum’s diary “is a leap: from a neurotic, self-absorbed woman to someone with deep autonomy. That process is accelerated by the threat she faces as a Jewish woman … At some point, she knows that even when everything is taken from her — her home, her freedom, even her life — she still has an inner core that can’t be lost.”
The award-winning director noted that the messages shared in Hillesum’s diaries are still relevant and must be shared, “especially after the horrors that shake the world of so many, over the past two years,” which may be a reference to the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
He said Hillesum’s “rejection of hatred, solidarity with the unprivileged, and inner freedom have brought solace and meaning to countless readers over the 44 years since her diaries were published,” including the filmmaker himself.
“Above all, this is a love story: the love of a young woman for the man who awakened her soul, and out of that awakening — a love for life, God, and all humankind,” he said in conclusion.
Watch the trailer for “Etty” below.
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Israeli President to Meet Pope Leo at the Vatican on Thursday
Israeli President Isaac Herzog speaks during a press conference with Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics in Riga, Latvia, Aug. 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ints Kalnins
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will travel to the Vatican on Thursday to meet Pope Leo, who has recently stepped up his calls for an end to the war in Gaza.
The one-day visit is being made at the invitation of the pope, Herzog’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.
The president will also meet Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican‘s chief diplomat, and tour the Vatican Archives and Library, it added.
“Central to their meetings will be the efforts to secure the release of the hostages, the fight against global antisemitism, and the safeguarding of Christian communities in the Middle East, alongside discussions on other political matters,” the presidency said.
Leo, the first US pope, last week issued a “strong appeal” for an to end to the nearly two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas, calling for a permanent ceasefire, the release of hostages held in Gaza, and the provision of humanitarian aid.
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Iran Warns US Missile Demands Block Path to Nuclear Talks
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani speaks after meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
The path to nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States is not closed but US demands for curbs on Iranian missiles are obstructing prospects for talks, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday.
A sixth round of Iran-US talks was suspended after the start of a 12-day war in June, in which Israel and the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities and Iran retaliated with waves of ballistic missiles against Israel.
“We indeed pursue rational negotiations. By raising unrealizable issues such as missile restrictions, they set a path that negates any talks,” the secretary of Iran‘s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, said in a post on X.
Western countries fear Iran‘s uranium enrichment program could yield material for an atomic warhead and that it seeks to develop a ballistic missile to carry one.
Iran says its nuclear program is only for electricity generation and other civilian uses and that it is enriching uranium as fuel for these purposes.
It has denied seeking to create missiles capable of carrying nuclear payloads and says its defense capabilities cannot be open to negotiation in any talks over its atomic program.
Larijani’s comments follow last week’s launch by France, Germany, and Britain of a “snapback mechanism” that could reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program.
The three countries, also known as the E3, have urged Iran to engage in nuclear negotiations with the US, among other conditions, in order to have the imposition of the snapback sanctions delayed for up to six months.