Turkish FM Fidan calls Israel a 'burden' on humanity, urges sanctions; FM Sa'ar slams 'incitement to genocide'

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in a CNN Türk interview that Israel has become a "burden that humanity can no longer bear" and called on the international community to impose sanctions on Jerusalem. "No matter which framework you use, there is no parameter under which these people can be sustained," Fidan said, adding that "the human conscience cannot bear it," and that "political systems cannot sustain it, and economic systems cannot sustain it."

Fidan argued Israel was not solely a problem for Turkey or President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying that while he "may be the only country" speaking out loudly, "this is a problem for all of you," and urged other nations to "take a diplomatic stance."

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar responded on X, calling Fidan's remarks "textbook incitement to genocide," accusing him of "dehumanizing the Jewish people as an 'unbearable burden'" in language he compared to "history's worst eliminationist regimes." Sa'ar called on "the civilized world and Turkey's NATO allies" to "unequivocally condemn this explicit call for the erasure of Israel."

Erdogan separately dismissed Israeli criticism over the Armenian genocide vote, saying Turkey pays "no heed to the slanders" from what he called a "murder network" responsible for 75,000 deaths in Gaza, according to state-run Anadolu.

Fidan has previously accused Netanyahu's government of using security concerns as a pretext to seize additional land, calling it "a fundamentalist government" and "a problem for the whole world." Turkey is set to host a NATO summit next week, as some Israeli officials increasingly describe Ankara as a regional adversary rather than an ally.