Erdoğan’s Messages to Trump: “Stop Israel” and “We Will Not Shy Away from War”

There were two current elements missing from the summary of President Tayyip Erdoğan’s phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on the evening of August 17, as released by the Directorate of Communications.

One was the fact that the Russia-Ukraine War was not mentioned, despite Russia’s reaction to Türkiye’s arms sales to Ukraine. The other was Erdoğan’s statement in an interview with Al Jazeera television just one day earlier, on August 16, that he “expects Trump to keep his word” regarding the sale of F-35s to Türkiye.

However, according to the statement, Erdoğan appears to have brought two other issues to the fore during the conversation:

• The Mecca Joint Security Agreement between Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and
• concern over “an increase in Israel’s actions” targeting Palestinians.

That means these two interconnected issues are currently more important for Türkiye, in the short term, than the F-35.

Why is that? To answer that, we need to dig a little deeper.

“Türkiye will not shy away from war” warning

A few hours before his call with Erdoğan, Trump was attaching the following meaning to his satisfaction with the Mecca Agreement in a post on his “Truth Social” social media account:

• “This shows that the Middle East is coming together and that the countries can finally defend themselves in a more meaningful way.”

But the Mecca Agreement was not new; it had been signed a week earlier. Had Trump only just thought of posting a message in capital letters saying “BOLD, BIG AND IMPORTANT-WOW”?

A few hours before Trump posted this message, on the evening of August 16, Erdoğan was answering questions on Al Jazeera television. In that interview, he said they wanted to see Egypt included in the August 7 Mecca Agreement, and he made a warning that received less media attention than the F-35s, but was more important than them.

When the interviewer reminded him of messages from Israeli officials directed against Türkiye, Erdoğan said:

• “If there are those who would attack Türkiye not for peace but for war, Türkiye will not shy away from this war either; it will not run away. I am saying this very clearly and explicitly. We do not want to experience such a thing.”

Trump’s Israel-Iran dilemma

This message should be read alongside the fact that, while praising Erdoğan at the NATO Summit in Ankara on July 7-8, Trump had cited Türkiye’s decision not to enter the war alongside Iran, despite being capable of doing so. In the days that followed, it emerged that Türkiye had stood against Israel’s plan to mobilize armed Kurdish groups and drag the United States into a ground war in Iran, and had played a role in stopping it.

Threats by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Yisrael Katz that Türkiye would be next after Iran were reflected in the media following the halting of this provocation.

In Ankara, the assessment is that the Netanyahu government will further escalate its attacks on Palestinians in an effort not to lose the general election to be held on October 27.

The Israeli election is just one week before the November 3 U.S. midterm elections, which are of vital importance to Trump.

Trump wants to end the war with Iran as soon as possible, but with Israel’s constant demands, reaching an agreement with Iran increasingly appears impossible. Tehran has already made it clear that it will drag its feet until the U.S. elections.

Trump, who followed Netanyahu into the Iran war, is now caught between his own needs ahead of the U.S. elections and the needs of the Zionist lobby ahead of the Israeli elections.

Will Israel do something crazy?

This is why Erdoğan’s drawing Trump’s attention to the increase in Israel’s actions — in plain terms, telling him “stop Israel” — is actually quite a mild expression.

Since the Gaza ceasefire agreement of October 10, 2025, to which Türkiye also acted as a guarantor, 1,265 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli attacks; it is called a ceasefire. The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks, meanwhile, has reached 73,400, according to official estimates.

Beyond that, will Netanyahu also escalate his attacks on Syria and Lebanon, in addition to his attacks on Palestinians, in order to win the Israeli election?

Following the NATO Summit in Türkiye, two developments have occurred that have disturbed Israel:

• The Mecca Agreement, which gives Erdoğan’s statement that “we will not shy away from war” a separate significance after the agreement, and
• the passage by Parliament of the framework law for the Terror-Free Türkiye process; this considerably reduces the number of effective actors that Israel might consider provoking against the countries of the region.

Erdoğan has delivered his messages, but the likelihood of Trump taking effective steps against Netanyahu’s demands is not particularly high because of the powerful Israel lobby in Washington.

Things are heating up.