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Türkiye's Foreign Ministry and the Presidency's Head of Communication issued sharply worded rebukes Saturday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu targeted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a social media post, with Ankara calling the attack a predictable reaction from a leader facing international criminal proceedings and a collapsing regional standing.
In an official statement, the Foreign Ministry dismissed Netanyahu as someone whose record speaks for itself, describing him as a figure widely compared to Hitler for his conduct, and pointing to the International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued against him in November 2024 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel is simultaneously facing genocide allegations before the International Court of Justice.
The ministry said Netanyahu's goal in targeting Erdogan was transparent: to derail ongoing peace negotiations and pursue expansionist regional policies, adding that without such maneuvering he would face prosecution at home and likely imprisonment. Ankara framed the attack as evidence of the discomfort caused by Türkiye's consistent public advocacy for Palestinian civilians.
Burhanettin Duran, Türkiye's Presidency's Head of Communication, echoed the ministry's tone in a post on X, accusing Netanyahu of orchestrating genocide in Gaza and launching military operations against seven countries in the region.
"He is a criminal with arrest warrants to his name with no friends left," Duran wrote, arguing that Netanyahu is deliberately dragging the region into chaos and conflict as a personal political survival strategy. Duran said Netanyahu possesses neither the moral standing nor the legitimacy to lecture anyone, and that accountability for his crimes against humanity will come eventually.
The ICC arrest warrants, issued unanimously by the court's Pre-Trial Chamber I on Nov. 21, 2024, allege that Netanyahu bears criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, for intentionally directing attacks against civilians, and for the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts, covering conduct from at least Oct. 8, 2023, through May 20, 2024.
All 125 ICC member states are legally obligated under the Rome Statute to arrest Netanyahu should he enter their territory, a constraint that has significantly curtailed his international movement. The warrant was the first ever issued against the leader of a Western-backed democratic state.
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The Foreign Ministry closed its statement with a commitment to stand alongside innocent civilians and to continue pressing for Netanyahu to face consequences for what it described as his crimes. Duran, invoking Erdogan by name, said Türkiye under the president's leadership will carry on its struggle against oppressors in pursuit of a more just, peaceful and secure world.
The exchange comes against a backdrop of sharply deteriorating relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv, with Turkish prosecutors having sought thousands of years in prison for Netanyahu and other Israeli officials over crimes related to the Gaza conflict and the interception of a Turkish flotilla in 2025.
Erdogan has in recent weeks compared Netanyahu to Hitler and accused Israel of actively undermining regional peace efforts. Netanyahu's post Saturday accused Erdogan of accommodating Iran's terror regime, allegations Ankara characterized as dishonest and beneath the dignity of serious diplomatic exchange.
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