The Turkish President’s Actions Belie His Diplomats’ Statements That Turkey Respects and Protects Its Christian and Jewish Heritage
On December 22, 2024, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rallied a crowd of his Islamist supporters in Mardin, not far from the Syrian border. As his supporters chanted, “Mr. President, take us to Jerusalem,” Erdoğan paused and then promised, “Patience brings victory.” His comments came less than five months after he appeared to threaten war on Israel.
His latest threats were not spontaneous. On October 1, 2020, Erdoğan declared, “Jerusalem is our city.” Turkey’s National Assembly—essentially a hollowed-out, rubber stamp for Erdoğan’s agenda—has put Jerusalem’s conquest high on its agenda. “Türkiye stands by the Palestinian cause, with all its institutions, government, the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, and most importantly, with its nation. I wholeheartedly believe that, in the coming period, Palestine will be liberated,” Parliamentary Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş declared on October 16, 2024. Lest Turkey’s usual apologists seek to spin or obfuscate the intent of his statements, both Erdoğan’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) ally Devlet Bahçeli and Erdoğan’s son Bilal promised to take the fight to Jerusalem.
As a narcissist, Erdoğan blames everyone but himself, and as an autocrat, he surrounds himself with sycophants who affirm anything Erdoğan may propose.
No one should doubt that Erdoğan means it. Like Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Erdoğan has faced increasing health challenges, perhaps leading him to consider his mortality and his legacy. Erdoğan is obsessed with his own imagined glory. Privately, he despises Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, for building a new and decidedly Western-influenced state to replace the decaying Ottoman Empire in Anatolia. While Erdoğan will not criticize Atatürk directly, he telegraphs his disdain for Turkey’s alcoholic founder with symbolism. In June 2005, Erdoğan changed the backdrop for his monthly television address. Gone was the portrait of Atatürk and the Turkish flag; in their place, was the Anitkabir—Atatürk’s mausoleum—and a mosque. The message Erdoğan sought to project to Turks was clear: Atatürk is dead, but Islam lives.
As ambitious and politically skilled as Erdoğan is, he is not smart. His failure to win admission to Turkey’s top schools chafes him. As a narcissist, Erdoğan blames everyone but himself, and as an autocrat, he surrounds himself with sycophants who affirm anything Erdoğan may propose. This is why the Turkish dictator constantly stumbles over precedent.
When Erdoğan proposed voiding the Treaty of Lausanne to change Turkey’s borders, for example, he never considered that the changes need not go Turkey’s way. If Erdoğan wants to rectify historical wrongs, why shouldn’t Izmir revert to Smyrna, for example? After all, Turkey’s possession of Smyrna was solely due to its ethnic cleansing.
While the Israelis guarantee religious freedom in Jerusalem and protect the sanctity of its many Jewish, Christian, and Islamic holy sites, the same cannot be said for Erdoğan’s stewardship of Istanbul.
Back to Jerusalem: If Erdoğan wants to change the status of Jerusalem, a city holy to multiple religions, why should the same precedent not apply to Istanbul [Constantinople]? After all, while the Israelis guarantee religious freedom in Jerusalem and protect the sanctity of its many Jewish, Christian, and Islamic holy sites, the same cannot be said for Erdoğan’s stewardship of Istanbul. The issue is not only the conversion of the Hagia Sophia to an active mosque. Just this year, Erdoğan’s regime desecrated the Byzantine Church of St. Savior in Chora, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, by transforming it into a mosque. Erdoğan’s actions simply continue his “salami slicing” tactics of destroying Greek Orthodox heritage and belying his own diplomats’ statements that Turkey respects and protects its Christian and Jewish heritage.
The Armenians, of course, fared even worst. Some of Turkey’s richest men built their affluence on confiscated and stolen Armenian property. Much of Incirlik Air Base, in which the United States Air Force stations more than 1,800 people, is built on confiscated Armenian land. In 2012, the Hrant Dink Foundation published a book identifying more than 600 properties in Istanbul alone seized by the Turkish government. Turkey roots its Armenian Genocide denial in not only religious hatred and racism, but a desire to cover up the theft of a century.
Perhaps, then, the State Department and its European partners should make their consulates in Istanbul independent entities to recognize the disputed nature of Turkey’s largest city.
The Trump administration is not afraid to break diplomatic china. For years until President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the State Department counted Jerusalem as a consulate unattached to any country. A decade ago, the U.S. Supreme Court even considered the demand that U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem have their place listed as Israel, rather than as Jerusalem, like Secretary of State John Kerry demanded. Because the United States does not recognize Communist China’s takeover of Hong Kong, the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong continues to enjoy independent status rather than formal subordination to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Perhaps, then, the State Department and its European partners should make their consulates in Istanbul independent entities to recognize the disputed nature of Turkey’s largest city. The State Department also should recognize Istanbul’s unique status by formally redesignating its consulate as the U.S. Consulate to Constantinople/Istanbul.
Turkey has failed to uphold religious freedom; indeed, Erdoğan has shown disdain and violence toward the Greek Orthodox Church and the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic churches. Members of Turkey’s dwindling Jewish community are de facto hostages of the Turkish state, living each day in fear that the extremists Turkey trains will turn their guns on them.
As Erdoğan seeks to raise questions of sovereignty in Jerusalem, he sets a precedent that every freedom-seeking country should seize to question Turkey’s stewardship of Istanbul and to study openly the city’s status and Turkey’s sovereignty.
