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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli have delivered harsh criticisms of Israel's military operations in Gaza, with Bahçeli suggesting Turkey might consider military action if the situation continues.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly's 80th session, President Erdoğan declared that "now is the day to stand firmly beside Palestine in the name of humanity," calling on world leaders to show courage in opposing what he termed a "genocide" in Gaza. According to TRT Haber, Erdoğan stated that over 65,000 civilians have died in Gaza, including more than 20,000 children, during what he described as "700 days of ongoing genocide."
"There is no war in Gaza," Erdoğan emphasized. "On one side, there is a regular army with the most modern, most lethal weapons, and on the other side, there are innocent civilians, innocent children." He characterized Israel's actions not as counter-terrorism but as "a policy of occupation, displacement, exile, and mass killing" using October 7 as a pretext.
In a powerful statement to TRT Haber, MHP leader Bahçeli went further, warning that "if Israel does not abandon this expansionist attitude, retaliation according to international law appears inevitable." He explicitly stated that "military options" should be considered against Israel and suggested Turkey would "act in the name of humanity without hesitation."
Bahçeli declared that "Palestine's security is Turkey's security" and called for the establishment of a joint Islamic defense mechanism similar to NATO's Article 5, where an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
Both leaders called for immediate international recognition of the Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. They demanded an immediate ceasefire with unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza.