Turkey's Jewish community supports anti-terror campaign in Syria

The Jewish community in Turkey came out strongly in support of the Turkish army’s incursion into northeastern Syria as it battles terrorism.

The Turkish Chief Rabbinate Foundation, representing the Jewish community in Turkey, announced: “We wish success in the fight against terror towards our state and our glorious army.”

The Turkish Jewish community is an integral part of Turkish society with most of its adherents tracing their history to when they escaped persecution in Europe fleeing to the Ottoman state. 

Turkey has a 25,000 strong Jewish community, mainly based in Istanbul where they have resided for centuries.

Comments by the Turkish Jewish community stand in stark contrast to the provocative comments emanating from Israel which seeks to speak for the worldwide Jewish community. 

Naftali Bennett, a Jewish lawmaker in the Israeli parliament, attempted to frame the Turkish incursion to liberate northeastern Syria as a “brutal Turkish attack.”

Meanwhile, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yair Netanyahu, who earlier this year had a racist meltdown announced on Twitter, announced in a hashtag “Free Kurdistan.”

Israeli and some US politicians have attempted several times to conflate the Israeli state-building process with “the Kurds”, mistakenly believing that the PKK, a Marxist-Leninist organisation which has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the EU, US and Turkey, is a partner for peace. 

A US National Security Council official recently said anonymously to Newsweek: "To be honest with you, it would be better for the United States to support the Kurdish nation across Turkey, Syria and Iraq. It would be another Israel in the region."

Israeli ties with the PKK go back decades - which Israel potentially sees as a useful proxy to further for its regional ambitions.

Christian communities speak out against PKK

Representatives of Christian communities in Iraq and Syria have spoken out against the Syrian branch of the PKK, the YPG for oppressing “Christians & selfishly refused the indigenous Christians' wishes re control” of their own communities. 

The Iraqi Christian Foundation rejected US government claims that the YPG occupation of northeastern Syria has been free for minorities. 

“Majority of Christians in Northeast Syria oppose Kurdish-YPG in Syria and Kurdish autonomy has not been peaceful for Christians. Also, Kurdish authorities are threatening Christians in Northeast Syria to leave the area.”

Similarly, the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) has said that the PKK-YPG is “responsible” for the escalation in northeastern Syria. 

“The communist ideology and violent nature of these nationalist organizations discredit democratic and liberal values. These ‘heroes’ have oppressed vulnerable Arameans, taken their innocent lives, Kurdified their lands and still use a tiny Christian group as their mouthpiece to represent Kurdish interests” said the World Council of Arameans in a statement.