Erdogan Feels Threatened by the Possibility of a Kurdish State Being Formed in a Weakened Iran

Erdogan feels threatened by the possibility of a Kurdish state being formed in a weakened Iran. And his anger toward Israel, the natural ally of the Kurds everywhere in the region, has become unhinged.

Erdogan’s rhetoric deliberately downgrades Israel from being a state to being something less — a sliver of land where “the Zionists” rule. He has also let loose an assault on the “Zionist entity’s” leaders, calling Netanyahu a “Hitler,” even though, from Erdogan’s point of view, that should not be considered an assault, for from Erdogan’s point of view, Hitler did one very good thing: he got rid of six million Jews. “As Israel becomes a dominant force in the Middle East, where does Turkey stand? – analysis,” by Amichai Stein, Jerusalem Post, April 27, 2026:

Israel has not taken the verbal assaults lying down. In a rare joint rebuke, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz lashed out at the Turkish leader’s hypocrisy. They accused Erdogan of “massacring the Kurds” and suggested that his outbursts were born of cowardice, claiming he was “afraid to respond to Iranian fire” that had previously targeted Turkish interests.

Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz knew exactly what they were doing: reminding the world that the Turks have been “massacring Kurds” in Syria, in Iraq, and in Turkey itself. The Turkish military continues active operations targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it defines as a terrorist organization. While the PKK declared a ceasefire in 2025, Turkey has continued air strikes and cross-border operations in both Iraq and Syria. And Israel, in turn, has been supplying weapons and training to Kurdish militias in those same countries.

Erdogan’s response was swift: “I remind the baby-killers who attack me on social media: The Republic of Turkey is not an ordinary state.”…

Quite right. The Republic of Turkey is not “an ordinary state.” Under Erdogan’s rule, what had once been a Kemalist state, moderate in its version of Islam, has been transformed. After the failed coup of July 15, 2006, the Turkish government initiated massive purges, resulting in over 160,000 public sector employees — including teachers, judges, lawyers, university rectors, police, and military personnel — being suspended or dismissed from their jobs. These people were opponents of Erdogan’s project to re-Islamize Turkey.

Meanwhile, Erdogan has built 20,000 new mosques all over the country since 2002. In addition, more than 5,000 Imam Hatip (“Teacher and Preacher”) high schools have been built. They provide vocational training along with 15 hours a week of strictly religious training, with courses on the Qur’an, the Life of Muhammad, and Arabic.

Before Erdogan rose to power, and Kemalism still held sway, Turkey maintained friendly relations with Israel. There were especially close ties between the Turkish and the Israeli defense establishments. That’s over, but even under Erdogan, the government’s perception of its national interest drives Turkey more than Islamic loyalties. Erdogan’s chief worry is Kurdish separatism. The Kurds are not seen as a threat to Islam — they are as Muslim as the Turks — but rather, as a threat to Turkish sovereignty, for Kurdish separatists would, if they could, take control of Kurdish-populated areas of Turkey and make them part of a future independent Kurdistan that would unite the Kurds, and the territories where they predominate in Turkey, with those in Iraq, Iran, and Syria.

Erdogan doesn’t want an Iran under new management. He doesn’t give a damn about the wretched condition of the people of Iran. Were the Iranian regime to fall, a pro-Western one that followed, having sloughed off the Muslim fanatics and opened itself to the world, especially to the United States, would enable Iran to replace Turkey as the Islamic state with which the United States is most friendly, and by which it is most favored. American investors would be eager to return to Iran after 47 years of hostility, and more likely, as a consequence, to invest less in Turkey.

Erdogan doesn’t want Iran to have nuclear weapons, which would make it the most powerful state, except for Israel, in the region. He knows that if Iran acquired them, the Iranian madmen might use them not just on Israel, as everyone assumes, but also on Turkey, as Iran’s historic rival. But at the same time, he does not want Iran so weakened that it could not suppress a separatist Iranian Kurdish uprising.

The Israelis have always thought of an independent Kurdistan as a potential ally, and even decades ago, the IDF supplied weapons to Kurdish soldiers in Iraq. Indeed, as early as 1931, during the Mandate period, the founder of Mossad, Reuven Shiloah, visited Iraqi Kurdistan in disguise as a Hebrew teacher, to find out whether an alliance between the Zionists and the Kurds was feasible. Israeli leaders have understood that the creation of an independent Kurdistan would weaken simultaneously four of its enemies — Iran (under the Islamic Republic), Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

And for the Padishah in his 1,150 room Ak Saray, or White Palace, in Istanbul, nursing his grievances, that would never do.