Bahceli condemns Trump Gaza plan as challenge to Turkey

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish far-right leader Devlet Bahceli on Sunday condemned as a “time bomb” US President Donald Trump’s plan to move Palestinians out of the war-torn Gaza Strip and take over the enclave, saying it poses a challenge to Turkey. 

“The plan to collapse and cover Gaza with mafia-like politics is a time bomb,” Bahceli said during the 56th anniversary of his far-right Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) founding. “Turkish nationalism is the only resistance against the chaotic international order and the US president, who has been triggering political, economic, and diplomatic crises like crazy since the moment he took office, and who needs urgent mental and moral supervision.” 

He further criticized Trump’s suggestion of moving Palestinians to neighboring countries like Egypt and Jordan as “imperialist banditry,” warning that Turkey could become a target if the Gaza project is not stopped. 

“The evacuation of Gaza means challenging Turkey and Islamic geography. The US president, who shamelessly took the seat of the Israeli prime minister, made his choice by serving Zionist ambitions,” Bahceli stated. 

Trump presented his idea of turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” during a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, suggesting two million Palestinians to be relocated to other countries, including Egypt and Jordan.

But both Cairo and Amman strongly rejected the idea.

“Their appetite to seize Canada as the 51st state, the increasing claims of rights around the Panama Canal and Greenland, as well as the escalating trade ways every day, have put many nightmare scenarios into action,” Bahceli continued, further accusing Trump of imperialist policies. 

“It is not a possibility to be disregarded that the global immorality that first bombed Gaza will try to stage the same game in Turkey in the future,” he warned. 

On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also condemned Trump’s plan.

“No one has the power to remove the people of Gaza from their eternal homeland,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul ahead of a Malaysia trip. “Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem belong to the Palestinians.” 

Erdogan further blasted Trump’s proposal as one that came with pressure from the Israeli government and “not worth discussing.” 

Trump’s proposal has prompted global condemnation and has particularly enraged Arab and Muslim countries. 

Saudi Arabia was quick to push back on Wednesday, warning that it “would not establish diplomatic relations with Israel” unless “an independent Palestinian state” is established within “the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.”