Should Turkey s Erdogan fear Israel s new government? - Israel News haaretz.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from haaretz.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Follow
Jan. 28, 2021
At first glance, the three-minute video featuring Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day seems indistinguishable from the many messages of commemoration and solidarity offered by world leaders.
Erdogan describes how the racism and hate crimes that led to the genocides of the Holocaust, Bosnia, Rwanda and Cambodia are still thriving today; he mentions the UN Genocide Convention; he ends with the hope for a future without discrimination and crimes against humanity.
But on further examination, it’s clear Erdogan’s words were far less anodyne, and far more cynical. Erdogan commemorated the Holocaust in order to instrumentalize its usefulness to his own stark political agenda. Rather than engaging with the Holocaust