Israel Turns CHP Crisis Against Erdoğan After Netanyahu Attack
Bosphorus News Geopolitics Desk
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used his Eid al-Adha message to present Türkiye as an "island of stability" in a region shaken by war, while directly targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Gaza, Lebanon and the wider Palestinian file.
In remarks carried by TRT Haber, Erdoğan said Türkiye was writing "a rare success story" despite crises around it, pointing to defence and aerospace exports rising from $248 million to more than $10 billion. He said Israel was continuing "occupation, destruction, massacre and illegal settlement" from Gaza to the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Lebanon.
In a separate statement during Eid prayers, Erdoğan used sharper language against Netanyahu.
"God willing, this tyrant called Netanyahu will receive the lesson he deserves from the Muslims of the world as soon as possible," Erdoğan said. The remark appeared in TRT Haber's live broadcast and was carried in the outlet's slider summary of the Eid message.
Israel's Foreign Ministry did not respond through Gaza or Lebanon. It used Türkiye's main opposition crisis to attack Erdoğan's domestic record.
"The free world and the self-appointed guardians of democracy and human rights remain silent as Erdoğan's regime crushes Turkish democracy in broad daylight. Opposition parties raided. Critics silenced. So much for defending democratic values," the ministry posted on X on 25 May.
The statement came hours after Turkish police dispersed opposition gatherings in İzmir and a day after riot police entered Republican People's Party premises in Ankara following a court decision that removed Özgür Özel from the party leadership and reinstated Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's former team. The CHP has denounced the ruling as a judicial intervention into party politics. Israeli media, including JNS and Algemeiner, amplified the Foreign Ministry line, framing the CHP turmoil as evidence of democratic backsliding under Erdoğan.
The Foreign Ministry statement came on the same day Trump publicly called on Erdoğan to join the Abraham Accords normalization framework as part of any Iran deal, a demand Ankara has not publicly answered.
The exchange also came at a difficult moment for Netanyahu at home. Israeli lawmakers voted 110-0 on 20 May to advance a preliminary bill to dissolve the Knesset and trigger early elections, although no election date has been set. Netanyahu did not attend the vote, with Israeli media reporting he was in a security meeting. Democrats leader Yair Golan said on 25 May that Netanyahu had "ceased to function," arguing that critical security arrangements were being shaped without his participation. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has continued to call for a harsher military line in Lebanon, including pressure on Beirut's electricity supply.
Erdoğan's Eid message cast Türkiye as stable, successful and regionally tested. Israel's Foreign Ministry used the CHP file to challenge that narrative on the same day it arrived. Both governments deployed the other side's internal vulnerabilities as diplomatic cover.