Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has declared that the state of Israel “cannot live without an enemy” and is now attempting to cast Turkiye in that role. In a televised interview with the state-run Anadolu news agency on Monday, Fidan said that after exhausting its confrontation with Iran, Tel Aviv is actively seeking to manufacture a new regional adversary. “After Iran, Israel cannot live without an enemy,” Fidan stated plainly. “We see that not only Netanyahu’s administration but also some figures in the opposition, though not all are seeking to declare Turkiye the new enemy.” He said that this pattern represents “a new development in Israel... turning into a state strategy.”
The current war of words traces directly to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent intervention to preserve the fragile US-Iran ceasefire. Over the weekend, Erdogan warned his American counterpart Donald Trump of “possible provocations and sabotage” that could undermine the two-week truce brokered by Pakistan on April 8. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with a sharp personal attack on Erdogan via social media, vowing that Israel would continue to confront Tehran and its regional allies “unlike Erdogan, who accommodates them and massacres his own Kurdish citizens”. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz escalated further, dismissing Erdogan as a “paper tiger” who had failed to respond to Iranian missiles fired over Turkish territory.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry responded to Netanyahu by saying “Netanyahu, who has been described as the Hitler of our time due to the crimes he has committed, is a well-known figure with a clear track record,” the ministry declared. It noted that an arrest warrant has been issued against Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and that Israel is facing proceedings before the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide. The statement further accused Netanyahu of seeking “to undermine ongoing peace negotiations and continue his expansionist policies in the region”, warning that failing this, “he risks being tried in his own country and is likely to be sentenced to imprisonment” a pointed reference to his long-running corruption trial. The ministry also referenced the indictment filed by Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office against 35 suspects, including Netanyahu, over the armed interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. That indictment seeks prison terms ranging up to 4,596 years for each suspect on charges including “crimes against humanity,” “genocide,” “torture,” and “qualified looting”.
Beyond the immediate bilateral dispute, Fidan used the same interview to address the broader crisis within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. He urged NATO allies to use the July summit in Ankara to reset ties with President Donald Trump and prepare for a potential reduction of US involvement in the alliance. Fidan said Turkiye believed Trump would attend the NATO leaders’ summit on July 7-8 due to his “personal respect” for President Erdogan, though he understood the American president was otherwise reluctant to attend. Trump has long criticised NATO, and last week threatened to pull the United States out of the alliance over European members’ refusal to send ships to unblock the Strait of Hormuz. Fidan observed that allies had previously dismissed Trump’s criticisms as mere rhetoric, “but were now planning around the possibility of reduced US involvement and ramping up their own defensive capacities”. “If there will be a US withdrawal from some NATO mechanisms, there needs to be a plan and programme to phase this out so nobody is left in the open,” he said.