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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference in Ankara, Turkey, on March 12, 2025. [Necati Savas\/EPA]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
On March 29, the last day of Ramadan, at the Grand Camlica Mosque in the Uskudar district on the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed the faithful and expressed a wish: \u201cMay Allah, for the sake of his name \u2018Al-Qahhar,\u2019 destroy and devastate Zionist Israel.\u201d And the faithful responded, \u201cAmen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coincidentally, on the same day, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was visiting Jerusalem, where he held talks with his counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who described the relations between the two countries as \u201cstrategic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Late Wednesday night, Israeli fighter jets bombed three military bases in Syria, where Turkey plans to install Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missiles. This is happening in the shifting sands of the Middle East, where Mitsotakis is actively attempting, as much as possible, to strengthen his relations with Israel to offset Ankara\u2019s pressure on Greece and the wider Eastern Mediterranean.<\/p>\n
If this is indeed the \u201cGreat Game\u201d of Greek diplomacy, in the current context of a general reversal of everything we know, which began with the return of US President Donald Trump to power, then it is worth noting that Ankara made no comment about Mitsotakis\u2019 visit to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
President Erdogan would never discuss the possibility of transferring the S-400 to Syria with Israel, because he simply does not recognize Netanyahu as a premier with a hegemonic role in the region. But neither would any of the Arab leaders, despite the differences \u2013 historical and not only \u2013 with Ankara. It is an issue for Ankara to negotiate with Russia and the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his invocation to the \u201cAlmighty,\u201d during which Erdogan deemed it appropriate to use a word from the Quran, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar reacted by arguing that the Turkish president \u201chas revealed his antisemitic face.\u201d Except that the Ottomans or the Kemalists later on were never antisemites. It\u2019s Netanyahu that Erdogan despises.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In times of chaotic fluidity, it is true that analysts abound. Some of them argue that Israel\u2019s attack on Syrian air defense bases aims to control the airspace of the region with Iran as the ultimate goal. Except that such an undertaking is unthinkable without the involvement of the United States.<\/p>\n
President Trump is a staunch supporter of Israel, but not Netanyahu\u2019s puppet. And of course the Middle East is one of the issues that Moscow and Washington are discussing. It is an extremely complicated situation to engage in divination.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n