Hours after Turkey said it would ask Interpol for a red notice on Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister’s office answered on Friday with a statement calling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an “antisemitic dictator.”
The statement called the Turkish effort “pathetic” and an attempt to intimidate Israel. “Erdogan is an antisemitic dictator who has massacred Kurds, harbors Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus, and jails record numbers of journalists and politicians who oppose him,” it said. It added that he “now seeks to extend his aggression against Israel into Syria. Israel will not tolerate it.”
The Turkish case
Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek announced the step on social media. He said arrest warrants had been issued for Netanyahu and one other suspect on charges that include genocide and crimes against humanity. They come from a case in an Istanbul court against 35 people over Israel’s interception of a flotilla bound for Gaza.
A request for an international red notice has gone to the Interior Ministry, Gurlek wrote, and the paperwork has been passed to the Foreign Ministry.
A red notice is an alert asking police worldwide to locate a person and provisionally arrest them. It does not oblige any country to act. It rests on a national warrant or a court order.
The flotilla was part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, whose activists have tried several times to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, saying they want to deliver aid. Israeli authorities say the aid aboard has been tiny next to what enters Gaza, and they call the voyages a “PR stunt.” Each time, Israeli forces stopped the ships.
Syria sharpens the quarrel
The row comes days after Israel struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase in northwestern Syria on Tuesday. Israeli officials said Turkey was preparing to put forces there. The strike damaged runways and hangars at a base that had recently been rebuilt.
“We made it clear to Turkey: Don’t,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday. “Apparently they didn’t hear the message, so we made sure they understood it better.”
Syrian officials disputed that account and said no Turkish base or permanent troop presence was planned. Turkey’s Defense Ministry denied that a Turkish military delegation was at the base before or during the strike. It said Ankara would keep helping Syria build up its military and that Israel should stop “such reckless attacks.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz had warned Erdogan on Thursday against “dangerous adventures” in Syria. US special envoy Tom Barrack called the Israeli strike an “unnecessary escalation” and said the Trump administration is working on a deconfliction mechanism among Israel, Turkey and Syria.
Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a Turkey specialist at Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center, said Israel was careful about its ties with Ankara, which go back to Turkey’s recognition of Israel in 1949. “Turning Turkey into an active enemy would be contrary to Israel’s national security interests,” he said.
