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Friday, August 21, 2026
Turkey denounces Netanyahu’s ‘petty political tactics’ as spat continues

A composite photo showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, May 5, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90); Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a press conference in Istanbul, Turkey, May 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Turkey denounces Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “petty political tactics” in a statement from the president’s office, the latest salvo in a growing diplomatic row between the two countries.
In a statement posted on X, it condemns what it calls the Netanyahu government’s attempt “to present Turkey as a new threat.”
Earlier in the day, Netanyahu’s office called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an “antisemitic dictator” after Turkey called for Netanyahu’s arrest over the interception of an activist flotilla bound for Gaza.
That came after Israel bombed Syria earlier in the week, charging that Turkey was expanding its military presence there, which Ankara has denied.
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