Israel, Turkey invoke Ottoman Empire in spat over Jerusalem

RAPHAEL AHREN

Bilateral ties tested by persistent Temple Mount standoff, though experts doubt crisis will unravel 2016 reconciliation deal

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech at a Justice and Development Party (AKP) meeting at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara on May 30, 2017. (AFP Photo/Adem Altan)

Further stoking bilateral tensions, Turkey on Wednesday slammed Israel for criticizing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s harsh denunciation of the Jewish state’s recent actions on the Temple Mount, drawing a fresh Israeli retort, as a bitter war of words between the former allies entered a second day.

In remarks Wednesday, Turkey also took issue with Israel for implying that religious tolerance was lacking during Ottoman rule in Jerusalem.

“At the Ottoman era, communities belonging to different religions and sects lived in peaceful coexistence and enjoyed freedom of worship for centuries. In this context, Jews would be expected to know best and appreciate the unique tolerance during the Ottoman era,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It was responding to a statement a day earlier by Israel’s Foreign Ministry that rebuffed Ankara’s criticism of Israeli security measure on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.

In Tuesday’s statement, Israel implied that Turkey had no right to preach to Israel, since it restricted access to the holy site during its 400-year control over the city in the previous millennium.

The area of today’s Israel was ruled by the Ottoman Empire between 1517 and 1917.

Shortly after Turkey’s statement Wednesday, Israel shot back with a fresh salvo, citing Turkey’s occupation of north Cyprus and repression of Kurds and journalists.

“It’s absurd that the Turkish government, which occupies northern Cyprus, brutally represses the Kurdish minority and jails journalists, lectures Israel, the only true democracy in the region. The days of the Ottoman Empire have passed,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, echoing Tuesday’s retort.

The spat began Tuesday when Erdogan called on Muslims to come to Israel to “protect” the Al-Aqsa Mosque after Israel installed metal detectors there in the wake of a terror attack on July 14 that saw three Arab Israelis kill two Israeli police officers using guns that had been smuggled into the site.

“If today Israeli soldiers are heedlessly able to soil the compound of Al-Aqsa Mosque with their boots citing trivial incidents as a pretext, and if Muslims’ blood is being easily shed there, then the reason for it is our failure to defend al-Quds [Jerusalem] strongly enough,” he told members of his AK Party in a meeting in the parliament in Ankara.

“Since Mecca is one half of our heart and Medina the other half, with al-Quds draping over them like a thin gauze, we should defend al-Quds together. Let’s defend it as if we are defending Mecca and Medina,” he urged.

In his speech, Erdogan stressed that the Ottoman Empire ruled over the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, for four centuries. “Our ancestors had acted with such great delicacy and sensitivity that it is impossible not to remember them with gratitude and longing given today’s cruelty.”

Jaffa Gate, one of seven gates in the Old City’s walls, was restored by Jerusalem’s Ottoman rulers in 1538. (Shmuel Bar-Am)

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