By Anadolu staff
ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sharply criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza and called on Germany to join efforts to end the humanitarian crisis during a joint press conference on Thursday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Ankara.
Merz, who formed Germany’s new coalition government in May, is on his inaugural visit to the Turkish capital.
Erdogan said the Palestinian group Hamas “has neither bombs nor nuclear weapons, but Israel does,” adding that Israel used them to strike Gaza yesterday. “Germany, don’t you see this?” he asked.
The Turkish leader said he conveyed Ankara’s views to Merz on preventing renewed atrocities in Gaza and stressed support for a two-state solution as a path to lasting peace.
“Just as we want the Russia-Ukraine war to end, we also support an end to Israel's war on Gaza,” Erdogan said. “Türkiye and Germany are two key countries that can join hands to achieve this.”
He further condemned Israel’s ongoing assaults on Gaza, saying it has “always sought to subdue (the territory) through starvation and what amounts to genocide, and this continues to this day.”
"We need to end the genocide and the deliberate starvation (in Gaza) by involving Germany’s Red Cross and our own Turkish Red Crescent,” he added.
Israel has killed more than 68,500 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 170,600 others in attacks in Gaza since October 2023.