Jihad Watch has been reporting on Turkey since this site began in 2003. See HERE. For years, the country, led by the despotic Islamic supremacist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has posed a developing danger to Israel, as well as to America and Western interests. Western culture tends to focus on appearance and mannerisms, and the warriors of jihad are well aware of this. That’s why the former al-Qaeda leader who is now president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, now presents himself in a suit and tie. In the case of Turkey, the country should long ago have been thrown out of NATO, but Erdogan is likewise well-versed in how to manipulate Westerners. Erdogan and Trump appeared to be best buds at the NATO summit in The Hague on June 24. And U.S. ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack “expects Donald Trump and Tayyip Erdogan to resolve long-standing defence-related sanctions on Turkey by year end.” That would mean settling “the issue of sanctions, which the U.S. imposed in 2020 over Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 missile defence systems.”
Now comes a clever analysis from Shay Gal in the publication Israel Hayom. Gal is a senior strategic advisor and analyst specializing in international security, defense policy, geopolitical crisis management, and strategic communications. “Turkey is the new Iran,” by Shay Gal, Israel Hayom, July 8, 2025:
When Israel struck Iranian targets, Erdogan positioned Turkey as a “new Iran”, asserting military, political, and nuclear ambitions. For the first time since the Ottoman Empire’s collapse, Turkey openly seeks regional dominance.
Like Iran, Turkey provides political and logistical support to terror organizations, notably Hamas, further destabilizing regional security and threatening Israel. This strategic posture closely mirrors Iran’s longstanding pursuit of regional influence through military intimidation and nuclear brinkmanship.
Erdogan recently announced rapid advancement of Turkey’s ballistic missile program, having successfully tested the ‘Typhoon’ missile capable of hitting targets at distances up to 560 km. He explicitly warned that if Greece does not remain “calm”, Athens itself could become a target. Turkey has also initiated mass production of the domestically developed stealth fighter jet ‘Kaan’, expected to enter service by 2029. Erdogan emphasized that Turkey “cannot afford to lag behind” Iran and Israel.
Turkey is accelerating its nuclear project at Akkuyu on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins operations this year. Its insistence on independent uranium enrichment suggests a rapid shift to military nuclear capability. In 2019, Erdogan explicitly stated: “I cannot accept the ban on Turkey possessing nuclear weapons while Israel has them”. Turkey risks following Iran’s path, leveraging an international network: Pakistan, which previously assisted Iran and Libya; Niger, supplying nuclear raw materials; and Somalia, hosting clandestine Turkish military training bases far from Western scrutiny…
The worst thing that could happen would be to allow Turkey to build up arms. While Greece has “‘fiercely’ lobbied France to halt sale of radar-guided, air-to-air Meteor missiles to Turkey, several EU countries are moving ahead with arms sales with Turkey.” They include Italy and Spain.
Turkey has been expanding its influence and bullying Greece in the process. In 2022, tensions rose to the point that there were widespread fears of war between the two NATO members. Yet no NATO member other than Greece, or any country, for that matter, is even attempting to hold Erdogan to any standard of accountability. Also in 2022, Erdogan was leveraging the Russia-Ukraine war to gain advantage. He held talks with Putin in order to deepen ties with Russia, and completely disregarded NATO’s concerns. Erdogan has stated his intention of reviving the Ottoman Empire, and has even revealed a “map of ‘Greater Turkey’ that goes back to the era of the Seljuk Empire and its defeat of the Byzantine Empire in the 1071 Battle of Manzikert.” He is also cracking down on political opponents who could unseat him in elections, even detaining and jailing them.
Erdogan’s ambitions are being facilitated by careless NATO and EU members, who should be paying attention, but choose to look the other way. Erdogan has stated that “Turkey has nothing that contradicts” Taliban “beliefs.” Yet its respectable status as a NATO state remains unchanged.
Shay Gal further states:
Turkey exploits its NATO membership for immunity, undermining the alliance from within and enjoying protection Iran has never received, despite Ankara’s policies contradicting NATO interests. Despite Turkey’s acquisition of Russia’s S-400 system compromising NATO security, President Trump seeks Turkey’s return to the F-35 program, further emboldening Erdogan.
Turkey’s view of Israel isn’t much different from Iran’s. Erdogan has compared Netanyahu to Hitler, and declared: “Whoever is on the side of Israel, let everyone know that we are against them.” During Eid al-Fitr remarks he made in April, Erdogan demanded that Allah “damn Zionist Israel.” The Turkish president has demanded that Israel withdraw from Syria, and even threatened to enter Israel to protect Palestinians, stating: “Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we will do [something] similar exactly to them.” Erdogan also “accused Israel of threatening security in the Middle East during a phone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.” An article in The Atlantic referenced Erdogan as “perhaps the greatest danger to the Jewish state in the Middle East.”
Erdogan has also allowed US-convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist, Sami Al-Arian, to operate freely in Turkey, with the support of resources provided by Erdogan and his government.
Gal advises that Israel must be prepared and “ensure that the operational capacity to strike Turkish military assets – similar to its demonstrated actions against Iranian threats – is fully developed, credibly signaled, and closely coordinated with regional allies. Israel must firmly oppose any deal reinstating Turkey into the F-35 program in exchange for concessions in Syria.” The world has long accepted the fact that Iran is a rogue nation, but Israel’s battle with Turkey is far more complex. The Jewish state’s work is cut out for it.
As global attention focuses on the openly hostile Iran — infamous for its proxies, agents abroad and chants of “death to America” and “death to Israel” — Turkey quietly maneuvers its way toward regional and global dominance. And is building up its military, with help from the West. Trump needs to think twice about referencing Erdogan as “a friend of mine.”
Billy says
Turkey, Iran, and the 50+ Islamic Countries are NOT FRIENDS of Non-Muslims as taught in Islamic Law, Sharia, and in Islam’s Quran. Allah teaches and promotes terrorism, hatred, and violence by Muslims against Jews and Christians because Infidelity, Unbelief, and Blasphemy are a CRIME AGAINST ALLAH(Quran 9:29; 60:4; 98:6-7; and more). Demonic Allah in Quran 5:51 says, “O you who have believed[Muslims], DO NOT TAKE the Jews and the Nasara(Christians) as friends. They are friends to one another. And whoever among you takes them as friends, so surely he is of them. Surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.” See also Quran 2:63-65; 3:115; 4:144; 5:59-60, 82; 7:166.
Further, Allah in Qur’an 8:39 says, “And engage in war with them[Non-Muslims] until there will not be sedition and the religion will be completely to Allah…”
Hoi Polloi says
Erdogan “explicitly warned that if Greece does not remain “calm” by which I’m assuming he meant accept certain death by quietly sinking under the weight of MENA boaties.
gravenimage says
And allowing Turkey to seize their islands…
somehistory says
OT…..another fraud involving mo’s and millions of tax payer monies.
“USDA charges 6 in $66M food stamps scheme — calling it ‘one of the largest’ such fraud cases in US history”
“According to prosecutors, Kehoe and his associates falsified USDA applications, misused license numbers and altered key documents to get fraudulent retailers approved for SNAP.
Kehoe and Davis are among six people now facing charges for conspiracy to steal government funds and misappropriate USDA benefits. The others include Mohamad Nawafleh, Omar Alrawashdeh, Gamal Obaid and Emad Alrawashdeh.
But this case isn’t an isolated case. A separate FOX10 investigation found that thousands of families in Alabama were recently targeted in another EBT fraud scheme.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/usda-charges-6-in-66m-food-stamps-scheme-calling-it-one-of-the-largest-such-fraud-cases-in-us-history/ar-AA1Il2go?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=387567a7779148a1bcc57ca803ca9f35&ei=29
gravenimage says
+1
SKA says
University of South Florida professor Sami Al Arian’s role in illegal arms acquisition for the banned terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad was exposed by Tampa Tribune reporter Michael Fechter on 28 May 1995 in his article “Ties to Terrorists.”
cornelius says
Erdogan gets bolder and bolder by the day. First, he arrested the opposition mayor of Istanbul. Now, he’s arresting scores of opposition mayors around the country. And Trump and Europe look the other way so as not to offend.
GE says
Meanwhile things are turning into skata in Armenia.
More of Erdogan and Aliyev’s machinations.
https://armenianweekly.com/author/hoory-minoyan/
Will somebody please pull Trump’s coat to the fact that Erdogan is a snake??
OLD GUY says
Yes I believe Erdogan is a deadly snake. BEWARE
Kepha says
I spent eleven days with a tour group in Turkey. The State Department advisory said that we should stay clear of demonstrations (one of which forced the bus to take a roundabout route back to the hotel in Istanbul); so, I suppose that Erdogan may be facing a bit of dissidence.
The thing that struck me the most, however, was that while touring the ruins of Ephesus, Heliapolis, Perge, and Cappadocia, the tour guide, an Alevi woman, demonstrated a knowledge of the New Testament and early church history far superior to that of many religious studies majors from historically Christian universities–including Harvard and Princeton Divinity Schools. Uncle Kepha’s wife asked her if she was a Christian (which was when the guide tipped her hand and identified herself as Alevi), and was told that learning about such things is necessary to be licensed as a tour guide in Turkey. BTW, when touring Switzerland, I heard some pretty ignorant things about both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism from a supposedly learned local guide while we were touring the Grossmunster in Bern.
If Islamic-secular Turkey can give such a decent education in Christian antiquity, I pray that the words of the Gospels and Epistles will not return void to the God who gave them. But this was also a “shame of face” moment for me (those who’ve read Daniel and Nehemiah will understand). When America’s ostensibly Christian institutions cannot produce a graduate as Scripturally literate as a heathen tour guide, I weep for the West.
gravenimage says
It is not Islamic Turkey providing such an education…
Cynthia says
Not seeing Turkey as a danger to the West is as blind as not seeing Qatar as a danger and all the subversive Muslims living among us.
Our governments have a death wish, and the leftist useful idiots among us are helping out.
gravenimage says
+1
Gurek says
Doesn’t anyone have the courage to kill the arch-fascist bastard called Tayyip Erdoğan? Why is this scoundrel allowed to spread terror around? Even the fact that this bastard, who exploits religion for his own political gain, abolished secularism should have been enough to open people’s eyes. Unfortunately, Western countries no longer defend democracy. They’re either afraid or they’ve sold themselves out to Tayyip.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Oh, Turkey is way worse than Iran. In Iran, the ayatollahs were totally crude and lacked any subtlety of how to try & diplomatically win over the West, particularly the US. They were pretty brazen about their support to jihadists, and ended up alienating most non-muslim countries (except of course the Leftist ones, who share their “death to America” mission statement). In the meantime, even in dar ul islam, being shi’a, they managed to alienate most sunni countries, except a handful like Qatar, Yemen, Kuwait, Somalia, “Palestine”, Algeria
Turkey, by contrast, is a part of NATO, and until the 00s, were an active candidate for joining the EU. As a result, most EU countries (except Greece & France) and too many Americans consider Turkey an ally, and have completely ignored the Erdogan trend of trying to resurrect the Ottoman empire. During the Biden Administration, Turkey did a good job of wooing even countries like Egypt. As a result, all their rogue behavior – from bullying Armenia, Cyprus and Greece to supporting ISIS and erecting a surrogate regime in Damascus gets totally glossed over
As a result, when Turkey does cross any limits, such as enable, say, any jihadist attack on Israel, Jerusalem will be unable to retaliate against Ankara the way it did against Teheran. Doing so would risk invoking Article 5 of NATO, which would either expose the hollowness of NATO’s alliance and break it up, or spark a NATO-Israel war. Despite the Rashidas & Candaces of this country, something like 75% of all Americans are still supportive of Israel. Would we be okay w/ going to war against Israel on behalf of Ankara, since Turkey is a part of NATO and Israel isn’t?
The country on whose territory Troy is located is the biggest Trojan horse in history that’s firmly in the West at least on the defense side, if not on the economic side
gravenimage says
Is Turkey ‘the new Iran’? A top Israeli strategic analyst thinks so
……………………………..
Pretty much. Too bad so many fools still thnk that Turkey is “moderate” and “secular”…