In Turkey, Erdogan’s charges of Western hypocrisy stick
Turkey’s president to do just that. At a recent conference, Mr Erdogan was in his element, taking swings at Israel for bombing northern Gaza into the ground, and at Western duplicity. “A journalist is killed each day," he said, referring to the 68 media workers killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s bombing campaign.
“But none of the institutions who preach to us about press freedom for years says even a single word." That of course is an exaggeration. Human-rights watchdogs have been slamming Israel for the killings of Palestinian civilians and journalists since the start of the war. But in Turkey, the charges Mr Erdogan now levels against Western countries at nearly every public appearance tend to stick.
With the Gazan authorities saying that the death toll from Israel’s bombardment has passed 20,000, criticism of Western policy and accusations of double standards in Turkey are reaching new heights. Speak not just with officials in Ankara, but with opposition politicians, dissidents, and ordinary Turks, and you will hear that Western governments that sanctioned Turkey for using disproportionate force in northern Syria ought to, but refuse to, sanction Israel for doing much worse in Gaza; that those that criticise Turkey for banning anti-government protests lose the moral right to do so when they ban pro-Palestinian marches at home; and so on. Similar sentiments have been widespread in many parts of the global south, even before Gaza.
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