Netanyahu Attacks Erdogan Over Kurds: Genuine Solidarity or Political

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a scathing attack on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday, accusing him of "massacring his Kurdish citizens", a statement that has ignited fierce debate among Kurdish communities about whether Israel's leader speaks from genuine concern or cold political calculation.

"Israel under my leadership will continue to fight Iran's terror regime and its proxies, unlike Erdogan who accommodates them and massacred his own Kurdish citizens," Netanyahu posted on X on April 11, 2026. The statement came hours after Turkey filed unprecedented criminal indictments carrying sentences of up to 4,596 years in prison against Netanyahu and 34 other Israeli officials over the Israeli Navy's seizure of the Sumud flotilla in October 2025.

For the 45 million Kurds spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, the world's largest stateless nation, the question of when and why powerful leaders invoke their name carries life-or-death significance. Netanyahu's words landed amid marathon US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad, Turkey's expanding military operations in Kurdish regions, and the broader reshaping of the Middle East through the ongoing Iran war.

What prompted Netanyahu's attack on Erdoğan

The immediate trigger was Turkey's April 10 criminal indictment, the most severe legal action any country has taken against sitting Israeli officials. Turkey's Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced charges of crimes against humanity, genocide, torture, and aggravated looting against 35 Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Israel's Navy Commander David Saar Salama.

The charges stem from the Global Sumud Flotilla incident of October 1-2, 2025, the largest-ever attempt to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza. A convoy of 40-44 vessels carrying approximately 500 activists from dozens of countries departed from Barcelona on August 31, 2025, and was intercepted by Israel's elite Shayetet 13 naval commandos approximately 70 nautical miles from Gaza's coast. Among those detained were Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla Mandela, and European lawmakers from Spain and Italy. Approximately 450 activists were detained and brought to Ashdod port, with reports of mistreatment including beatings and blindfolding. Israel denied all allegations, calling them "brazen lies," and deported 341 activists via Ramon International Airport.

Turkey, which had 24 citizens among the detained, launched criminal proceedings escalating from initial investigations in October 2025 to detention warrants for 37 Israeli officials in November 2025, culminating in the formal indictment. The trial will proceed in absentia under "fugitive procedures."

Netanyahu's Kurdish-related counterattack was not spontaneous, it follows a documented pattern. In March 2019, he tweeted that Erdoğan "commits genocide against the Kurds." In April 2018, he said Erdoğan "invades the Kurdish regions and slaughters civilians in Afrin." Each time, the statements came in direct response to Turkish criticism of Israel.

Erdoğan's documented record against Kurds

Whatever Netanyahu's motivations, his characterization of Erdoğan's treatment of Kurds is extensively documented by international human rights organizations.

Military operations across borders

Turkey has conducted at least five major military operations in Kurdish-populated areas of Syria since 2016. Operation Olive Branch (January-March 2018) targeted the Kurdish YPG in Afrin, displacing at least 137,000 people according to UN figures. The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights documented crimes including arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, forced displacement, and extrajudicial killing. Human Rights Watch's 2024 report, titled "Everything is by the Power of the Weapon," documented systematic abuses in occupied Afrin and concluded that Turkish authorities bore "direct responsibility."

Operation Peace Spring (October 2019) pushed into northeastern Syria, with Amnesty International documenting "summary killings and unlawful attacks." Most recently, Operation Dawn of Freedom (November 2024-2025) saw Turkish-backed forces seize Manbij and Tel Rifaat, displacing approximately 100,000 Kurdish civilians and besieging over 200,000 Syrian Kurds in northern Aleppo.

In Afrin specifically, Kurdish street names and school curricula were changed to Arabic or Turkish. Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, was banned. Sunni Arab families were systematically resettled in Kurdish homes. Germany's Federal Public Prosecutor opened investigations under universal jurisdiction.

In northern Iraq, Turkey's Operation Claw series (2019-present) maintains dozens of military bases inside Iraq's Kurdistan Region. In October 2025, Turkey's parliament approved Erdoğan's longest-ever military mandate, three years for continued operations in both Syria and Iraq, even after the PKK announced its disbandment in May 2025.

Political persecution inside Turkey

The persecution extends deep into Turkey's democratic institutions. Selahattin Demirtaş, former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish HDP party, has been imprisoned since November 4, 2016, over nine years. In May 2024, he was sentenced to 42 years in the mass "Kobane trial" alongside 107 other HDP politicians. The European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber ruled in December 2020 that his detention was "politically motivated" and ordered his immediate release. Turkey has refused to comply. Erdoğan explicitly stated that releasing Demirtaş "would not be possible under his governance."

Fellow HDP co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ has been imprisoned since 2016, sentenced to 30 years. The government removed elected mayors from 99 municipalities, replacing them with appointed "trustees", 94 of which were HDP/DBP Kurdish mayors. Thousands of HDP members and supporters have been imprisoned. The broader historical record includes the destruction of 3,000 Kurdish villages in the 1990s and the displacement of 378,335 Kurdish villagers by official count.

Israel's complicated history with the Kurds

The Israel-Kurdish relationship stretches back to the 1930s when future Mossad director Reuven Shiloah visited Kurdistan and forged contacts with non-Arab communities. Under Israel's "Periphery Doctrine", Ben-Gurion's strategy of building alliances with non-Arab regional entities, the relationship deepened significantly.

In the 1960s, Israel deployed Mossad teams to Iraqi Kurdistan during the First Iraqi-Kurdish War. Israeli agents supplied weapons and training to Mustafa Barzani's Peshmerga forces. Barzani visited Israel at least twice, meeting Prime Ministers Eshkol and Golda Meir. Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir promised Barzani "unconditional Israeli support for an independent Kurdistan."

That promise met reality in 1975, when the Iraq-Iran Algiers Agreement saw Iran withdraw support for Kurds in exchange for border concessions. Israel lost access to Iraqi Kurdistan. Israeli PM Rabin's response, "The Shah sold out the Kurds", became an epitaph for the relationship's fundamental fragility.

In 2017, Israel was the only country to publicly support the Kurdistan Region's independence referendum. Netanyahu declared Kurds "a brave, pro-Western people who share our values." Israeli flags were waved at Kurdish independence rallies across the Kurdistan Region. But Netanyahu simultaneously instructed his cabinet to stop commenting on the referendum, deeming it "too sensitive."

During the current Iran war, the Axios news service reported that Netanyahu lobbied Trump to call Iraqi Kurdish leaders Masoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani, arguing "the Kurds were going to rise up." Times of Israel analysis described Iraqi Kurdistan as Israel's "silent partner" and "highway" for strikes on Iran. But this relationship has been fundamentally transactional, Israel benefits from Kurdish intelligence and strategic positioning, while Kurds have received little concrete, lasting support.

As the Kurdish analytical outlet Niqash assessed: "For the Kurds, the relationship with Israel has never borne real fruit. And when Israel reaches agreements and treaties with countries like Syria and Iraq, Kurds will most likely be the victims."

How Kurdish groups have responded, and why silence speaks loudly

Notably, no major Kurdish political party has publicly responded to Netanyahu's April 11 statement. This silence is itself significant.

Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM Party (formerly HDP), the country's third-largest parliamentary party, has explicitly rejected being instrumentalized by either side. Regarding the broader Iran war, DEM Party Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan stated: "We, as the DEM Party, neither support these hegemonic imperialist attacks nor the tyrannical, authoritarian system." The party is currently engaged in delicate peace negotiations with the Erdoğan government following the PKK's May 2025 disbandment announcement, making alignment with Israel politically impossible.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, KRG President Nechirvan Barzani has maintained a carefully calibrated position, calling for humanitarian action in Gaza while quietly maintaining cooperation with Israeli military operations against Iran. An advisor to Masoud Barzani noted that Kurdish participation in anti-Israel resolutions in Baghdad "does not mean that Erbil was joining the chorus against Israel."

Kurdish researcher Robin Fakhari published an analysis in Fair Observer titled "Erdogan Condemns Netanyahu While Waging His Own War on the Kurds", calling Erdoğan's stance "the pot calling the kettle black," the Kurdish equivalent of "the raven calls the other raven black."

When empires speak of Kurds, Kurds should listen carefully

The deeper truth is that both leaders are using the Kurdish issue instrumentally. Erdoğan champions Palestinians while waging documented campaigns against Kurds. His trade embargo on Israel is partly performative, UN Comtrade data showed Turkey remained Israel's fifth-largest supplier in 2024, and 456 ships sailed from Turkish ports to Israel in the first nine months of 2025.

Netanyahu invokes Kurdish suffering exclusively as political ammunition against Erdoğan. His statements come in direct response to personal political threats, Turkish criminal charges, not in response to actual Kurdish suffering. Israel signed security agreements with Turkey in the 1980s that facilitated Turkish military operations against Kurds. When alliances with Turkey or Iran served Israeli interests, Kurdish interests were abandoned.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry dismissed Netanyahu as someone "widely compared to Hitler," pointing to ICC arrest warrants issued in November 2024. Turkey accused Netanyahu's goal as "transparent: to derail ongoing peace negotiations and pursue expansionist regional policies."

For Kurds, the lesson of history is consistent: when powerful states mention their name, the question is never whether the statement is factually true, Erdoğan's anti-Kurdish record is extensively documented, but whose interests are actually being served. Netanyahu's statement accurately describes Turkish oppression of Kurds. But accuracy in the service of political convenience is not the same as solidarity.