Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said during a conference of his ruling party that Turkey would one day regain control of Jerusalem.
Speaking at a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Çorum province on Saturday, Çepik said: “Just as we witnessed the liberation of Damascus and Aleppo, we will, God willing, witness the liberation of Jerusalem one day.”
He added: “I still believe today that God will show us those days. He will certainly show them to us. I have believed this from the bottom of my heart, and I still do. Just as in the past, these places will return to us once again. They will, God willing, come back under our rule and authority, because we have a global leader like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at our head. We have a leader of global stature.”
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz responded to the remarks on Sunday.
“I say to the Turkish interior minister, who threatens and dreams of ruling Jerusalem: Jerusalem is not Constantinople, and Israel is not the collapsing Crusader Empire. It is a strong and determined state that has proven its ability to defend itself against any threat,” Katz said.
He claimed that “Jerusalem has been the capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years and will remain the capital of Israel forever, while the Ottoman Empire that you and Erdoğan dream about has collapsed and will never return.”
Katz added: “It is unfortunate that you have learned nothing from the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who worked to make Turkey a modern state. Instead, you are trying to take Turkey back to an era of darkness and backwardness.”