Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called for the world to recognise the environmental impact of the war in Gaza and asked the Israeli government to grant more aid access to the Palestinian territory, the Associated Press reported. Erdogan was speaking at the United Nations climate summit, known as COP31, in Antalya, Türkiye, which Türkiye is hosting. 'What has taken place in Gaza is not only a genocide, but it is also an ecocide,' Erdogan said, to applause from world leaders and other climate envoys, according to AP.

Source: Associated Press, via EuropeSays

'Centuries-old olive trees were destroyed, soil was polluted, water was polluted, cities were turned into giant masses of rubble,' Erdogan said in his speech at the leaders' summit of COP31, speaking about the toll armed conflicts inflict on both humanity and nature, according to Turkish reporting of his address. He also lamented that Israel has not allowed delivery of prefabricated housing units to Gaza, noting, in the words reported by Turkish outlets, that Palestinians in Gaza 'are condemned to live in tents unfortunately, amid mud everywhere', after heavy rain flooded tens of thousands of tents and shelters.

Source: Associated Press and Daily Sabah, via EuropeSays

What the UN reporting cited at the summit says

A UN-backed panel of independent experts concluded last year that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, a conclusion Israel vehemently denies and whose panel Israel has accused of antisemitism, AP reported. Separately, a 2025 report by the UN Environment Programme outlined the environmental damage in Gaza since the war began: remote-sensing assessments showed that by May 2025 more than 97% of tree crops, 82% of annual crops, 95% of shrubland and 89% of grass and fallow land had been damaged, according to the UNEP report cited by AP. Erdogan's use of the word 'ecocide' is his political characterisation of that destruction; it is not a judicial finding by any court.

Source: Associated Press, via EuropeSays

Israel's response: a 'campaign of lies'

Israel, which was not invited to the summit, responded through its Foreign Ministry on X, accusing Erdogan of 'using an international forum to push his anti-Israel campaign of lies' and of supporting Hamas, AP reported. 'Those who truly care about Gaza should demand that Hamas disarm so reconstruction can begin,' the ministry's statement read, according to the same reporting. Erdogan has been an outspoken critic of Israel throughout the war, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September, speaking at the UN General Assembly, called Erdogan an antisemitic 'tyrant', AP noted.

Source: Associated Press, via EuropeSays

Türkiye answers back — and repeats the charge on Thursday

Türkiye's Foreign Ministry answered on Wednesday, condemning what it called Israel's defamatory attack on Erdogan after he denounced Israel's systematic oppression of Palestinians at the COP31 leaders' summit. 'The Israeli Foreign Ministry's despicable and outrageous slanders against our president represent yet another example of Israeli officials' futile efforts to conceal the truth,' the ministry said. It added: 'As Türkiye, we will continue to stand with all those oppressed by Israel's aggressive policies, particularly the Palestinians.'

Source: Daily Sabah reporting of the Turkish Foreign Ministry statement, via EuropeSays

The exchange continued on Thursday, November 12. Omer Celik, deputy chair and spokesperson of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), echoed the Foreign Ministry's statement on Thursday, Turkish reporting said. Burhanettin Duran, head of the Directorate of Communications of the Turkish Presidency, also said in a social media post on Thursday that Israel had resorted to insults and propaganda instead of paying the price for genocide and the ecological disaster it inflicted on Gaza, according to the same reporting.

Source: Daily Sabah, via EuropeSays

What happens next

World leaders began formal talks at COP31 this week, seeking agreement on concrete steps to curb global warming after a year of deadly floods, heat waves and other climate-related disasters, AP reported. Erdogan's Gaza remarks have now become a diplomatic exchange in their own right — speech, Israeli rebuttal, Turkish counter-rebuttal — running alongside the climate negotiations in Antalya, and they keep the environmental cost of the Gaza war, documented in the UNEP figures, in front of the leaders gathered there. No party announced any change in aid access or policy in the statements reported here.