Several tens of thousands of people, including a son of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, gathered on Monday 1er January in Istanbul to denounce the “PKK terrorism [Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan] and Israel »and support the Palestinians in Gaza.
According to the Turkish press agency Anadolu, reported by television stations, these are ” hundreds of thousands “ of demonstrators who responded to the call of a platform of more than three hundred organizations and associations to come together under the slogan “Mercy to our martyrs, support for Palestine, curse on Israel”.
The compact crowd, armed with Turkish and Palestinian flags, began to converge, before daybreak, towards the Galata Bridge. She stretched along the European side of Istanbul, chanting “Death to Israel, outside Palestine” And ” God is big “noted Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Support for the Palestinian cause
A huge banner in Palestinian colors was hung in the middle of the bridge and images caricaturing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a mustache similar to Hitler’s were brandished. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared the Israeli official to the Nazi leader last week: “How are you different from Hitler?” » he said.
Since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Turkish head of state, traditional supporter of the Palestinian cause, has increased his invectives against Israel. He notably described Israel as a state “terrorist” And “genocidal” due to the shelling of the Palestinian territory of Gaza by the Israeli army in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas, and also denounced US support for the Israeli government.
PKK classified as “terrorist organization”
The Turkish army lost twelve soldiers at the end of December in two separate attacks attributed to the PKK in northern Iraq. Bilal Erdogan, the second son of the Turkish head of state, took the floor to greet the “martyrs” of the army who fell in this border country: “Our prayers are our best weapons to emerge from darkness, greetings to our holy martyrs who light our path. » “I went to the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza: people there place their hopes in Turkey and Recep Tayyip Erdogan”he assured the crowd.
Presented as a fervent supporter of political Islam, Bilal Erdogan, 42, president of the Youth and Education Foundation, co-organizer of the gathering, is given as a possible successor to her father at the head of the country.
The Turkish army regularly launches military operations against the positions of the PKK in Iraq, classified as “terrorist organization” by Ankara and its Western allies. In twenty-five years, Turkey has installed several dozen military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan.