Turkey’s defense ministry said on Thursday it had no military delegation at a Syrian airbase before or during this week’s Israeli strikes, rejecting Israel’s justification for the attack and calling on Jerusalem to halt what it described as reckless assaults on Syrian territory.
The ministry said no Turkish forces were present at the Abu al-Duhur base, in Syria’s Idlib province, at the time of Tuesday’s strikes, and accused Israel of targeting Syria’s stability, security, unity, territorial integrity and infrastructure. It called the strikes on Syrian sovereignty unacceptable and said Turkey would continue supporting Syria’s efforts to build up its own military and security capabilities.
Turkey’s foreign ministry separately condemned the strikes, urging the international community to hold Israel accountable for what it called violations of international law.
The exchange followed sharper Israeli rhetoric earlier Thursday, when Defense Minister Israel Katz accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of pursuing “dangerous adventures” in Syria and said Israel would not allow any actor to threaten its security. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had warned Damascus in advance not to permit a Turkish presence at the airbase, adding that Syria “didn’t quite understand the message.”
Turkish officials have pushed back on Israel’s characterization of the visit, telling reporters the delegation’s presence at the base days before the strike was limited to reviewing rehabilitation and infrastructure work, not establishing a military deployment.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has in recent weeks accused Israel of destabilizing Syria through repeated strikes and warned that Ankara would intervene against any attempt to fragment the country, remarks widely interpreted in the region as directed at Israel. Turkey, which shares a long border with Syria and has emerged as one of the most influential foreign backers of the government in Damascus, has said it seeks no confrontation with Israel but that continued strikes are eroding Syria’s ability to counter security threats.
The dispute unfolds against a broader backdrop of strained ties between the two regional powers, both members of extensive security and economic networks in the Middle East, as they compete for influence in post-Assad Syria. The United States has been pushing for a deconfliction mechanism between the two sides to prevent the tensions from escalating into direct conflict.
