German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has condemned remarks made by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Israel as “completely inappropriate,” as criticism of Ankara’s rhetoric toward Israel grows in Germany ahead of this week’s NATO summit, the German Die Zeit newspaper reported on Sunday.
Fidan made the remarks during an interview with CNN Türk, where he accused Israel of bringing instability, bloodshed and massacres to the region and argued that Israel had become a problem not only for Turkey but for the international community.
“These people have become a burden that humanity can no longer bear,” Fidan said, referring to Israel and its policies.
He called on other countries to take a diplomatic position and impose sanctions on Israel.
Wadephul rejected Fidan’s language and defended Israel’s right to protect itself.
“Israel is facing a continuing threat from the region and has the right and the duty to protect its population,” Wadephul, a member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said in response.
He said he planned to travel to Israel and meet with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar for talks on current issues in the Middle East.
“At the same time, I want to make a contribution to an agreement between Israel and Turkey,” Wadephul said. “We will only be able to resolve the conflicts in the region with a basic consensus on both sides.”
Sa’ar renewed his criticism of Fidan on Monday, saying in joint remarks with Rwanda’s foreign minister that the Turkish minister’s comments amounted to “a clear call for genocide.”
"The remarks by Turkey's Foreign Minister are a clear call for genocide. The Jewish people know all too well what happens when such words are allowed to go unanswered. The first step on the road to genocide is dehumanization."
Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs, @gidonsaar, in… pic.twitter.com/NbsHLZKUjt
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) July 6, 2026
“The Jewish people know all too well what happens when such words are allowed to go unanswered,” Sa’ar said, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “The first step on the road to genocide is dehumanization.”
Sa’ar had earlier accused Fidan on X of “textbook incitement to genocide,” saying that describing the Jewish people as an “unbearable burden” was “the classic, horrific language of history’s worst eliminationist regimes.”
Fidan’s remarks also prompted criticism from German lawmakers across party lines.
Agnieszka Brugger, deputy parliamentary group leader of the Greens, said she understood the German government’s dilemma in trying to help ensure the success of the NATO summit in Ankara but added that Berlin could not remain silent on everything.
The criticism comes just before NATO leaders gather in Ankara for a July 7-8 summit hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, where Turkey is seeking to emphasize its importance to the alliance.
Germany and Turkey are both NATO members, and Berlin has sought Ankara’s cooperation on defense, migration and Middle East diplomacy.
Markus Töns, the Social Democratic Party’s spokesman on European affairs, said Fidan had “crossed a red line.”
“That a foreign minister of a NATO member state uses such unrestrained and delegitimizing language must not remain without consequences,” Töns said.
Gitta Connemann, a CDU lawmaker, called the comments an “unprecedented blunder” in a post on X.
Criticism also came from the Left Party. Cansu Özdemir, the party’s foreign policy spokesperson, described Fidan’s remarks as “dehumanizing and extremely dangerous.”
“Criticism of Netanyahu’s far-right government and the genocide in Gaza is necessary, but this must never turn into the sweeping condemnation of an entire people or into antisemitic resentment,” Özdemir said.
Fidan’s remarks came after Israel’s Cabinet approved a proposal to formally recognize the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide, a step that still requires parliamentary approval.
Turkey rejects the genocide label and says the deaths occurred during wartime conditions and civil conflict.
Ankara accused Israel of using the Armenian issue as political retaliation and an attempt to distract attention from Gaza.
President Erdoğan said Israel was trying to “cover up its own crimes” and smear Turkey with accusations.
Turkey has been one of Israel’s harshest critics since the war in Gaza began after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
Ankara has joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and has repeatedly called for legal and economic pressure on the Israeli government.
Relations between Turkey and Israel, once close military and trade partners, have deteriorated sharply over Gaza and wider regional disputes, including Syria. Ankara backs Syria’s new government, while Israel has carried out strikes in Syria and warned against Turkish military entrenchment there.