Erdoğan’s statements about Israel, whether now or in 2014, contradict the definition of genocide. He should generally sweep in front of his own door.
In 2014, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated in an interview with CNN that Israel was a “terrorist state” and was committing “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which went beyond what Hitler did to the Jews ( “Die Presse“). dated July 26, 2014). Now he repeats this absurd and scandalous claim in light of Israel’s response to the – of course – Hamas terrorist attack.
Their assessment not only contradicts the definition of genocide according to the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, according to which it only means an act “committed with the intention of destroying a national, ethnic, racial or religious as such to partially destroy.” Neither in the past nor currently do Israel’s official political statements and military defense measures indicate such an intention. Whether or not Israel has complied with all other international rules, especially the prohibition of war crimes and international humanitarian law, in the course of its current military advances in Gaza cannot yet be conclusively answered.
Erdoğan should also clean his own door: after the PKK carried out an assassination attempt in Ankara on October 1 this year, the following day he ordered Turkish fighter jets to bomb not only PKK positions in northern Iraq. In retaliation, according to reports from the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), Kurdish NGOs and the German NGO Medico, confirmed by several international media outlets, the Turkish armed forces launched 304 air and air strikes in northeast Syria. Syria, populated by Kurds. Syria, from 4 to 10 October, ground attacks were carried out in 224 locations and, therefore, against the local civilian population, with attacks on hospitals, health centers and schools, gas and oil installations, power plants, water stations and economic warehouses. It is said that numerous people were killed or injured and 80% of the civil infrastructure was damaged to the value of 56 million dollars.
World politics should hold Erdoğan more accountable
These attacks were committed in an area of northern Syria over which Turkey assumed control and later jurisdiction on October 9, 2019, in cooperation with the Syrian National Army (SNA) as part of the military’s “Operation Peace Spring”. These are, therefore, obviously war crimes committed against a civilian population, in accordance with article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. This received comparatively little attention from the media and politicians, even when Chancellor Nehammer visited Erdoğan while these attacks were underway. There was talk about Israel, but apparently not about Turkish attacks on the Kurdish civilian population in Syria.
Erdoğan should be called to account more strongly for international and European politics, especially as president of a NATO state, also and precisely because he is an important mediator between the Arab world and Israel, in Russia’s war against Ukraine and in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan can and should be. Regardless, it remains to be seen whether he will face a trial at the International Criminal Court, similar to that of Syrian ruler Assad, for acts of violence committed in his country, although neither Turkey nor Syria have ratified the Rome Statute.
Hannes Tretter, aoUniv.-Prof. retired for fundamental and human rights, University of Vienna; President of the Vienna Forum for Democracy and Human Rights (www.humanrights.at).
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