What’s interesting is that it’s the Turkish prime minister of all people to call out Israel in these terms, in such a public forum. Turkey has long been an ally of Israel, the two countries being relative outsiders to the Middle East, sharing security concerns regarding Iraq and Syria. Since the nineties especially the ties between these two countries have been tight, with their militaries training together and Turkey buying arms from the Israeli defence industry. These ties won’t be broken by one public outburst, but it does put a strain on them.
Erdogan is of course the leader of an explicitly Islamic party and it’s therefore no surprise he feels the plight of his co-religionists in Gaza. What I would like to konw is how his outburst was recieved by the Turkish establishment, especially the army, which is fiercly secular and dedicated to defending the secular nature of the Turkish state. This won’t have allayed their already existing suspicions about Erdogan, no matter how popular his outspokenis is with the Turkish public.
Finally there’s also the small matter of hypocrisy Erdogan has engaged in with this outburst. Turkey after all has a long history of repression itself, especially of the Kurds, including under Erdogan’s leadership.