New Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Photo: Michael Gross via Wikimedia Commons.

In yet another display of brazen antisemitism from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu promised a crowd on Sunday that his government will not succumb to the “Jewish lobby,” the local Hurriyet Daily News reported.

“I announce it from here: we have not and will not succumb to the Jewish lobby, the Armenian lobby or the Turkish-Greek minority’s lobbies,” Davutoğlu said during a speech at his party’s provincial congress in Istanbul. “I call out to the parallel lobby that sent them a message: We will stand before you with dignity no matter where you are; you will be despicable for the treason you have done to this nation.”

According to the report, Davutoğlu’s reference to the “parallel lobby” was said in regards to comments made by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan late last month in which he claimed that opposition Gülenists, followers of the US-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, in Turkey are cooperating with Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad.

“The sincere people backing this parallel structure should see with whom this structure is cooperating with,” Erdoğan said on January 31st, while addressing a meeting of the All Industrialist and Businessmen’s Association (TÜMSİAD) in Istanbul. “Shame on them if they still cannot see that this structure is cooperating with the Mossad.”

Turkey’s ruling government has long been accused of indifference and insensitivity towards antisemitic hate crimes in the country, and the climate for Turkey’s Jewish citizens has deteriorated dramatically in recent years.

Last summer, Erdoğan loudly compared Israel’s actions in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge to Nazi Germany, and even charged that Israel’s fight against Hamas terrorists in the coastal enclave had “surpassed what Hitler did.”