Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is engaging in “incitement to genocide” after Fidan remarked in a CNN Turk interview that Israel had become a “burden that humanity can no longer bear” and urged the international community to take action against Israel.
In a post on X, Sa’ar said Fidan’s remarks amounted to a call for Israel’s destruction.
“Fidan’s sickening words are textbook incitement to genocide,” Sa’ar wrote. “Dehumanizing the Jewish people as an ‘unbearable burden’ is the classic, horrific language of history’s worst eliminationist regimes.”
Turkish FM @HakanFidan’s sickening words are textbook incitement to genocide.
Dehumanizing the Jewish people as an “unbearable burden” is the classic, horrific language of history’s worst eliminationist regimes.
The civilized world and Turkey’s NATO allies must unequivocally…
— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) July 2, 2026
He also called for an international response, writing: “The civilized world and Turkey’s NATO allies must unequivocally condemn this explicit call for the erasure of Israel.”
During the CNN Turk interview, Fidan said Israel had become a “burden that humanity can no longer bear” and urged countries to impose sanctions on Jerusalem.
“No matter which framework you use, there is no parameter under which these people can be sustained,” Fidan said, adding that “the human conscience cannot bear it,” and that “political systems cannot sustain it, and economic systems cannot sustain it.”
Fidan also said Turkey “may be the only country” speaking out loudly and argued that “this is a problem for all of you,” urging other governments to “take a diplomatic stance.”
His remarks came after Turkey condemned the Israeli Cabinet’s unanimous decision to recognize the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire.
In a statement earlier this week, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said: “The Israeli government, which has systematically persecuted the Palestinian people before the eyes of the entire world and is being tried at the International Court of Justice on charges of committing genocide against the people of Gaza, is seeking to cover up its own crimes through the political decision it has adopted regarding the events of 1915.”
The ministry added, “Turkey will continue to work resolutely to bring an end to Israel’s expansionist and destabilizing policies in the region.”
The proposal recognizing the Armenian genocide, introduced by Sa’ar, was unanimously approved by the Cabinet on Sunday and will proceed to the Knesset for final approval. It recognizes the mass killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire and calls on Israel to condemn efforts to deny or minimize the atrocities. The accompanying explanatory text states that the genocide began in April 1915 and resulted in the killing of 1.5 million Armenians.
Relations between Turkey and Israel, once marked by robust trade, deteriorated shortly after Hamas’ invasion on Oct. 7, 2023, with Turkey imposing a trade embargo and adopting increasingly harsh rhetoric.
