Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has left nothing more to be said against Israel: “[Israelis] have no conscience, no honor, no pride,” he said July 19 during a rally in the Black Sea city of Ordu. “Those who condemn Hitler — day and night — have surpassed Hitler in barbarism.” The day before in Bursa, a city on the coastline of the Marmara Sea, he also had this to say: “World leaders are making weird statements. They say Israel is using its right of self-defense. What kind of a self-defense is this that it is only the Palestinians to die? It is all a game. We face a new crusader alliance.”

His foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, echoed the same sentiment July 20 in a speech at an iftar dinner organized by the youth branch of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). “The main opposition party leader [Kemal Kilicdaroglu] and some others call the Middle East a quagmire. But we won’t let anyone call the Middle East a quagmire,” he said, adding, “This place includes the cave of Hira [near Mecca where Muslims believe Muhammad received his first revelations from God], which enlightens humanity. We will work night and day to remove the colonialists from this region. We will raise the light of civilizations in the Middle East.”

As leaders of a NATO member country, Erdogan and Davutoglu’s statements against the colonialists — while ignoring Turkey’s Ottoman heritage — are certainly attention-grabbing, making one wonder whether they really like Turkey’s direction to be open to questioning. Some analysts also question whether the upcoming August presidential election — first ever by public vote — where Erdogan is running and it is speculated that Davutoglu could become interim prime minister as a result, has any role to play behind this harsh narrative for rallying the people’s support.

By the same token, though, one can also wonder how Turkey can be contributing in building a safer and a peaceful region with such a narrative. After all, Turkey, with its ideological approach to the region, is having only minimal contact with Israel — and with Egypt. The Erdogan government certainly has a strong relationship with the Hamas leadership. In this framework, it is understandable why the Turkish side has never publicly questioned Hamas' administration of Gaza. For example, one needs to wonder whether Erdogan approves of the newly discovered tunnels going into Israel. Israel Pulse writer Shlomi Eldar categorically detailed in his July 20 article that these tunnels or the “underground Gaza” have nothing to add to the welfare of aboveground, or “upper Gaza.” He wrote, “No Iron Dome air defense system has been found as of yet to counter these terrorist tunnels.”