Pro-Iran lawmaker from Erdogan's party calls for jihad against Israel in Turkish parliament

Levent Kenez/Stockholm

Mehmet Sait Yaz, a deputy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), representing Diyarbakr, gave a speech on October 2 in Parliament in which he recited verses from the Quran. Yaz called on Muslim countries to make a unified decision to confront “criminal and thief” Israel, stressing that it is a religious obligation.

Ending his speech by quoting the verse from the Quran, Fight them and Allah will punish them by your hands, Yaz said that Israel, using the latest technology provided by the United States and the West, is indiscriminately bombing Palestine, the Lebanon, Yemen and Syria. targeting mosques, hospitals and markets. Thousands of defenseless women, children and Muslims are being brutally murdered, he added.

Yaz further argued that while the West remains united in supporting Israel, U.S.-empowered kings, shahs and sultans remain silent, thus becoming complicit in this oppression. No organization responsible for defending the right to life is effective; prayers do not reach the oppressed and curses do not overthrow the oppressor, he said.

Yaz, a former imam and preacher at the historic Diyarbakr Ulu mosque, was elected as a deputy in the general elections on May 14, 2023. During the election campaign, he said in a interviewI did not run for office on my own initiative. The offer of candidacy came directly from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

This is not the first time Yaz has raised the subject of Israel in Parliament. On April 18, after Iran launched 300 missiles and drones toward Israel, marking the first Iranian firing of missiles directly into Israeli territory, on April 13, Yaz gave a speech congratulating Iran.

“Yes, Iran hit Israel. The so-called untouchables Israel and America, which no one dares to confront, were hit by Iranian missiles. For this reason, I congratulate Iran and the Iranian people for throwing stones and launching missiles at Israel, the Great Satan,” he said.

Again on April 18, in a special broadcast broadcast Praising Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 on Rehber TV, a Turkish-language religious network financed by members of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Yaz delivered a passionate speech in favor of Iran.

Iran is not fighting against a Muslim state. Iran is fighting against a Jewish state. It is obligatory for all Muslims to stand with Iran, Yaz said. He criticized some commentators who oppose Iran, saying they are supported by Western countries and speak on their behalf. Unfortunately, such cruel comments are also made on our national television channels. We don't know who is on which side. Are you for Israel or for Iran? Are you for the Muslims of Gaza or for the Jews? he added.

In the broadcast, where he also recited verses from the Quran, Yaz said infidels were left speechless, saying the world had been silenced and intimidated by Iran's defiance of Israel and Western imperialism . This fear alone is enough for them. They went underground, he said.

Yaz served for 30 years at the Ulu Mosque, the most popular mosque in Diyarbakr, where he was known for his pro-government propaganda during sermons. Following a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016, which many consider a false flag operation orchestrated by Erdogan's government, the event resulted in the exclusion of dozens of thousands of civil servants and military officers, thus facilitating the consolidation of Erdogan's power. During these years, he called on his congregation to support him. After retiring in 2017, he established the Quranic Studies Foundation, where he taught theology students in Dyarbakr.

Yaz first entered politics in 2018, although the AKP did not nominate him as a parliamentary candidate at the time.

Yaz argues that the Kurdish question, which refers to the Kurdish population's quest for equal rights, cultural recognition and political representation in Turkey, can only be resolved on an Islamic basis. In 2023, he claimed that there were no Kurdish candidates on the lists of the pro-Kurdish and secular Green Left Party (YSP) in the elections.

He stressed that the lists were composed entirely of Turks, defining the candidates as neither Kurds nor Muslims. Furthermore, Yaz called the Republican People's Party (CHP), the main secular opposition party, anti-Kurdish, saying that the collaboration between the YSP and the CHP in the 2023 presidential election, held at the same time time as the legislative elections, had been facilitated by the United States. States.

Yaz currently sits on the Human Rights Inquiry Committee in Parliament.