Turkey asks Interpol to arrest Netanyahu over Gaza

Turkey asks Interpol to arrest Netanyahu: the shadow of Erdogan

As Turkey requests that Interpol issue a red notice for Benjamin Netanyahu over genocide in Gaza, the record of its own president is back in the spotlight. The request, first reported by DW, comes at a moment of maximum tension in the Middle East. But Ankara's move has peine an uncomfortable debate: accusations of war crimes against the Kurdish population, the Armenian genocide and military operations in Syria and Iraq.

Erdogan's record in the dock

This is not a theoretical debate. In 2025, an international tribunal convicted Erdogan of war crimes against the Kurds in Turkey's southeast during 2015-2017, including indiscriminate bombing and repression. In November 2011, German lawyers had already filed a complaint against the Turkish president and his generals over alleged summary executions, mutilation of corpses and the use of chemical weapons. And in 2024, human rights organizations denounced operations by the Turkish state in Syria and Iraq.

Erdogan's defense responds that these accusations are unfounded and that the request to Interpol is a political gesture. But the comparison is inevitable: if the international community pursues Netanyahu for genocide, what does it do about Ankara's pending cases?

Turkey-Israel war?

The request also has a geopolitical reading. Some analysts argue that Turkey is more dangerous to Israeli interests than Iran, and that a war between the two would not be a simple exchange of missiles. On this reading, Israel has failed to finish off Hezbollah and its strategy focuses on Iran. Others believe Israel does not want an open war with Turkey and that the response will be diplomatic.

The question left hanging: is the request to Interpol an act of justice or an exercise in double standards? While the courts deliberate, tension in the region keeps rising.