US Blasts Erdogan for Anti-Semitic Remarks

The US condemned Turkish President Erdogan’s comments on the Jewish people on Tuesday.

“The United States strongly condemns President Erdogan’s recent anti-Semitic comments regarding the Jewish people and finds them reprehensible,” stated US State Department spokesman Ned Price.

Erdogan Should Refrain from Incendiary Remarks

“We urge President Erdogan and other Turkish leaders to refrain from incendiary remarks, which could incite further violence,” said Price in a statement. “We call on Turkey to join the United States in working to end the conflict.”

Erdogan’s comments, made in a nationally televised address on Monday, represented one of his strongest attacks against the US president since Biden took office in January.

“You are writing history with your bloody hands in this incident that is a serious disproportionate attack on Gaza, which is leading to the martyrdom of hundreds of thousands of people,” Erdogan said. “You forced us to say this. Because we cannot stay silent on this anymore.”

Erdogan’s comments were made because of the US’ support for Israel.

Erdogan has accused Israel of “terrorism” against the Palestinians and recently said, “It is in their nature.”

Erdogan Calls Israeli Government Murderers

“They are murderers, to the point that they kill children who are five or six years old. They only are satisfied by sucking their blood,” Erdogan declared.

In response, Price retorted “Anti-Semitic language has no place anywhere.  The United States is deeply committed to combatting anti-Semitism in all of its forms.

“We take seriously the violence that often accompanies anti-Semitism and the dangerous lies that undergird it. We must always counter lies with facts and answer crimes of hate with justice,” stated Price.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting, the Turkish leader had criticized Biden’s approval of weapons sales to Israel.

The Biden administration on Monday approved the potential sale of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to Israel, according to congressional sources.

“Today, we saw Biden’s signature on weapons sales to Israel,” Erdogan said. “Palestine territories are awash with persecution, suffering and blood, like many other territories that lost the peace with the end of the Ottomans.”

Erdogan Lashes Out at Biden for Using Armenian Genocide

“Mr. Biden, you have sided with the Armenians on the so-called Armenian genocide,” Erdogan said.

Biden on April 24 marked the the 106th anniversary of the mass killings of Armenians during the closing days of the Ottoman Empire by twice referring to it as a “genocide” — a word no American president since Ronald Reagan has used to describe the event for fear of alienating Turkey, a NATO ally.

The Ankara government has fiercely opposed the characterization of the events as genocide and said that Armenians and Turks were killed in ethnic clashes during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after Armenian groups sided with Russia in World War I.

Biden took office vowing a harder line on Erdogan, whom he has described as an “autocrat.”  The two leaders have agreed to hold a first meeting on the sidelines of a NATO summit scheduled for Brussels in June.