By Ece Toksabay and Dilara Senkaya
ISTANBUL (Portal) – President Tayyip Erdogan addressed hundreds of thousands of supporters a day before the 100th anniversary of the secular Republic of Turkey at one of the largest pro-Palestinian rallies since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, courting his Islamist political base.
“Israel has been openly committing war crimes for 22 days, but Western leaders cannot even call on Israel for a ceasefire, let alone respond to it,” Erdogan told the crowd in Istanbul waving Palestinian flags.
“We will tell the whole world that Israel is a war criminal. We are preparing for it. We will declare Israel a war criminal,” he said.
In an hour-long speech, Erdogan also reiterated his assertion that Hamas is not a terrorist organization and called Israel an occupier.
Turkey has condemned the deaths of Israeli civilians caused by the Hamas rampage in southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,400 people, but Erdogan this week called the militant group of Palestinian fighters “freedom fighters.”
He also criticized some Western nations’ unconditional support for Israel, drawing sharp accusations from Italy and Israel.
Unlike many NATO allies, the European Union and some Gulf states, Turkey does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization. It has long hosted its members, supported a two-state solution and has offered to play a role in negotiating the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack.
Political analysts said Erdogan wanted to step up his criticism of Israel’s bombing of Gaza and overshadow Sunday’s celebrations commemorating Turkey’s secular roots.
Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and director of the Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, an Istanbul-based think tank, said the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and pressure from political allies had prompted Erdogan to toughen his rhetoric.
Turkey “will protect its principles and share them with the international community, but it must do so with more subtle diplomacy if it wants to play such a diplomatic role,” Ulgen said.
The rally at Istanbul’s old airport was attended by leaders of allied nationalist and Islamist parties that helped Erdogan win narrow elections in May. Erdogan criticized opposition parties for not calling Netanyahu a “terrorist” and also using the same term to refer to Hamas.
ATATURK LEGACY
Erdogan invited all Turks to the rally and said “only our flag and the Palestinian flag will fly.” His Islamist-rooted AK Party had predicted that more than a million people would come.
The 100th anniversary of modern Turkey takes place on Sunday and newspaper headlines could be dominated by news of Saturday’s rally rather than celebrations honoring the republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, analysts said.
Erdogan, Turkey’s longest-serving leader, and his AK Party have eroded support for the Western-oriented ideals of Ataturk, who is revered by most Turks. In recent years, Erdogan’s portraits have appeared alongside Ataturk’s on government buildings and schools.
“The symbolism is clear and no one in Turkey is aware of it – that the pro-Palestinian rally is likely to overshadow the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the secular republic,” said Asli Aydintasbas, a visiting fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution .
She said that while Erdogan’s comments on Hamas reflected Ankara’s long-held position, he was aimed at capitalizing on anti-Israel sentiment at home and “consolidating Turkey’s Sunni conservatives.”
The government has said the Israel-Hamas conflict will not limit celebrations of the 100th anniversary, for which it has organized events across the country.
(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Jonathan Spicer, editing by Helen Popper and Giles Elgood)