Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 29 called Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu a 'psychopath', 'maniac' and 'vampire'.
He hit out at the deadly Israeli strikes ordered by Israel’s leader that killed 45 Palestinians in a tent camp near Rafah in the south of Gaza. Israel, he said, represented a threat to “all of humanity” and the Islamic world should wait no longer in agreeing to joint action against it.
Appearing before lawmakers from his AKP party, he said: “The world is watching the barbarism of a sick man, a maniac, a psychopath and a blood-feeding vampire called Netanyahu and they are watching it on live broadcasts.”
He added: “Oh, the American state, this blood is on your hands also. You are responsible for this genocide at least as much as Israel.”
And he continued: “Oh, the heads of state and governments of Europe, you have also participated in Israel’s genocide, barbarism and vampire-like act.”
Erdogan, reported on May 29 as agreeing to attend the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Italy next month, also chastised the UN for failing to stop Israeli brutality in the Gaza war, saying: “The UN cannot even protect its own staff. What are you waiting for to act? The spirit of the United Nations is dead in Gaza.”
“No state is safe as long as Israel does not follow international law and does not feel bound by international law,” Erdogan also remarked, repeating his frequent accusation that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza.
Reports on May 29 said that US-made munitions were used in the strike near Rafah.
A difficulty for Erdogan—who in March vowed to “send Netanyahu to Allah”—is that he himself stands accused of committing war crimes as part of the Turkish occupation of parts of northern Syria.
Another is that although in early May he announced a full trade boycott of Israel, an investigative journalist has presented export data and contractual details on a BP-operated pipeline that he says show how Azerbaijani oil continues to flow to Israel via Turkey.
