Turkey, a member of NATO, has strongly criticised US President Donald John Trump‘s threat to occupy Gaza by expelling the Palestinians from their own land. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently said that the Trump Administration was making “wrong calculations” regarding the Middle East, adding that heeding ‘Zionist lies‘ would only exacerbate conflicts. He also accused the Israeli Armed Forces of committing genocide in Gaza in the pretext of conducting operations against the Palestinian Hamas Movement.

Earlier, President Trump threatened to take over Gaza, stressing that the US would build the Riviera of the Middle East there. He said so in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu who visited the US in the first week of February 2025. As expected, the US President’s threat triggered a controversy worldwide. President Erdoğan made clear that the NATO member-countries would never accept the US’ Gaza Plan.

More than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a series of Israeli attacks since the Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7, 2023. Finally, Qatar, alongside the US and Egypt, mediated a ceasefire deal between the Zionist Regime and Hamas on January 15, 2025 and it came into effect on January 19. However, both the parties have been accused of violating the terms of the deal multiple times.

After holding talks with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Washington DC, President Trump said that the Palestinians would be permanently removed from Gaza and a luxurious hotel would be built along the Mediterranean coast. The US President stated: “The Gaza thing has not worked; it has never worked. It is a pure demolition site. If we can find the right piece of land or numerous pieces of land and build them some really nice places… I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza, which has had just decades and decades of death.”

President Trump’s decision to take over the Gaza Strip and to “own it” (after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere) has shocked the global community. President Erdoğan strongly condemned the statement issued by his US counterpart, saying: “Unfortunately, the US is making a miscalculation regarding our region. One should not be in an approach that disregards the history, values and heritage of this geography.” He further said: “The US is taking the lies of the Zionists (the Israeli government) seriously and interfering with the dynamics of this region will only exacerbate existing wounds. This is the wrong path.“

Political analysts are of the opinion that Turkey may convince other NATO members to oppose President Trump’s Gaza Plan. As Turkey, a major regional power, maintains close ties with a number of NATO member-countries, President Erdoğan may try to create troubles for the US in West Asia with the help of those countries. Furthermore, the Arab Nations may also oppose the forcible displacement of the Palestinians from Gaza. According to analysts, a slight miscalculation by President Trump may trigger a deeper crisis in the Middle East.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das