Response from Istanbul

Yesterday’s half-hour meeting between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan generally confirmed the good climate of bilateral relations and closer cooperation in immigration, while a new meeting of the Supreme Cooperation Council was agreed for January.

However, the meeting was not given much attention by today’s Turkish press, nor was the part of Erdogan’s speech yesterday at the UN General Assembly, which referred to the Turkish president’s demand for official recognition of the pseudo-state, and his claim that Turkey has the longest coastline in the Mediterranean, so it has a key role in the region.

The Turkish press focuses on the first part of the stormy speech of the Turkish president, who called on the states that do not recognize Palestine “to stand on the right side of history and recognize the state of Palestine as soon as possible.”

The related articles reproduce the part of his speech that called Israel’s actions “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” and called for an end to the network of slaughter.

With headlines such as: “Israel commits genocide in front of the world and spreads fire in Lebanon”, “Humanity’s alliance must stop with Israel”, “Let’s stop the Netanyahuas we stopped Hitler”, today’s Turkish press, mainly the pro-government press, applauds the attitude of the Turkish president, while the Islamist Yeni Safak goes one step further with the headline “Violence must be used to stop Israel”, to follow Milliet entitled “What are you waiting for?”.

The spread of the war in Lebanon gives the Turkish president a new opportunity to project the country as the protector of the weak Muslims and as the country that provides the major humanitarian aid to Palestine. This also appeals to the Turkish president’s Islamist audience at home, which has lately resented economic hardship.