ANKARA: Turkiye’s lawmakers held a closed-door session on Tuesday to discuss the spread of war in the Middle East, a week after President Tayyip Erdogan made an unsubstantiated claim that Israel eventually aimed to encroach on Turkish territory.

Israel has not publicly responded to Erdogan’s claim, which analysts and opposition lawmakers say is far-fetched and is intended primarily to deflect public attention away from Turkiye’s economic woes.

Israel has also not commented publicly on Tuesday’s closed-door parliamentary session in Ankara, which is titled “Israel’s occupation of Lebanon and developments in the region”.

Foreign and defence ministers made presentations at the closed-door session — which was requested by the opposition — on the risk of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon widening further.

Nato member Turkiye is among the world’s sharpest critics of what it calls Israel’s illegal and reckless wars with Hamas and Hezbollah. It halted trade with Israel and applied to join a genocide case against it at the World Court.Last week Erdogan told parliament that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was acting out his dream of a “utopia” and “promised land” for Israel. “After Lebanon, the next place on which Israel will set its eyes will be our homeland,” he told parliament’s opening session, attended by several foreign ambassadors and his cabinet, without providing evidence.

Chaos at borders

Devlet Bahceli, leader of Erdogan’s main ally MHP, said on Tuesday it was “likely that chaos in neighbouring countries will reach our borders and that Israel will harass Turkiye” in the near future. But Ozgur Ozel, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), dismissed such talk.

“It’s unreasonable to think Netanyahu will conduct an assault on Turkiye, which is a Nato member and has a great army,” Ozel told his party.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2024