By Harut Sassounian
Given Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s frequent and inflammatory attacks on the United States, Europe and Israel, it is not surprising that the overwhelming majority of Turks consider these countries as their biggest enemies. This is a serious issue because Turkey, as a NATO member, is part of the Western military alliance. Unfortunately, NATO lacks a mechanism to expel a misbehaving member, leaving voluntary resignation as the only option for Turkey to exit the alliance.
Erdogan’s attacks on the West are part of his strategy to divert the Turkish public’s attention away from the country’s severe internal economic problems and political turmoil, aiming to bolster his waning popularity.
A recent survey by the Turkish polling company ASAL Araştırma ve Danışmanlık, revealed that 84% of Turks view Israel as an enemy, 75% regard the United States with hostility, and 55% see France as an adversary. Only 7%, 14%, and 25% respectively, see these nations as friendly, with the remainder expressing no opinion. This anti-West sentiment has been steadily growing for several years.
Erdogan’s relationship with Pres. Biden has been particularly strained. Throughout Biden’s presidency, Erdogan was denied a White House visit. In a January 17, 2020, interview with the New York Times, Biden, then a presidential candidate, labeled Erdogan an “autocrat,” pledged support for his opponents, and advocated for his electoral “defeat,” Erdogan’s presidential advisor, Ibrahim Kalin, responded by accusing Biden of ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy, while Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu questioned how “someone this disinformed wants to run the country [United States].”
One of Erdogan’s biggest shocks came on April 24, 2021, when Pres. Biden officially recognized the Armenian Genocide — a dramatic shift in U.S.-Turkey relations. Erdogan responded by saying that “the U.S. President has made baseless, unjust and untrue remarks about the sad events that took place in our geography over a century ago. I hope the U.S. President will turn back from this wrong step as soon as possible.” Erdogan also stated that he will have a serious conversation with Biden on this topic when they meet at a NATO summit in June 2021. However, during that meeting, Erdogan did not bring up the genocide issue.
Beyond historical disputes, Erdogan has clashed with Biden over Ukraine and Gaza, Turkey’s obstruction of Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO accession, and its purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system – leading the U.S. to block Turkey’s purchase of F-35 advanced fighter jets. Erdogan also denounced U.S. support for Kurdish forces in Syria and criticized Washington’s decision to host Fethullah Gulen, a dissident Turkish cleric.
Erdogan hostility toward Israel escalated dramatically. Following Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli military response in Gaza, Israel-Turkey relations plunged into hostility.
In 2009, during a World Economic Forum panel in Davos, Switzerland, in front of the assembled world leaders, Erdogan directly confronted Israel’s President Shimon Peres, declaring: “When it comes to killing, you know very well how to kill. I know very well how you killed children on the beaches [of Gaza].”
A violent clash occurred in 2010 when Israeli forces boarded Turkish ships attempting to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza, killing 10 Turks and wounding dozens. In response, Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv and expelled Israel’s ambassador from Ankara. Erdogan condemned the incident as a “bloody massacre,” forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to issue a formal apology and pay $20 million to the families of the victims.
Recently, Erdogan has intensified his verbal attacks on Netanyahu likening him to “Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin — today’s Nazis,” describing him as the “Butcher of Gaza,” and accusing him of committing genocide against the Palestinians. He further declared, he will “send Netanyahu to Allah to take care of him, make him miserable and curse him.”
Israel responded forcefully. In January 2024, Israel’s Foreign Minister tweeted: “The President of Turkey Erdogan, from a country with the Armenian Genocide in its past, now boasts of targeting Israel with unfounded claims. We remember the Armenians, the Kurds. Your history speaks for itself.” Prime Minister Netanyahu added: Erdogan “denies the Armenian Holocaust, massacres Kurds in his own country and eliminates regime opponents and journalists.”
Ironically, both Erdogan and Netanyahu — who refuse to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide – invoke it selectively when convenient to attack each other. In one of his more extreme claims, Erdogan recently alleged that Israel was planning to invade Turkey and annex its territory.
Erdogan’s confrontations extend beyond the United States and Israel, spilling into Europe. In 2017, he compared today’s German leaders to those of the Nazi era, accusing them of engaging in “fascist actions” reminiscent of Nazi times. He has also attacked French Pres. Emmanuel Macron, questioning his mental health, which led France to recall its ambassador from Ankara.
Erdogan’s relentless demonization of foreign leaders has fueled the perception among many Turks that the world is conspiring against them.
