The Functional Role of Erdogan’s Turkey in Facilitating Normalization with the Jews
(Translated)

Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 585 - 04/02/2026

By: Ustaadh Mu’nis Hamid – Wilayah Iraq

Normalization with Jews is no longer a surprising event, or an exception in the political landscape. Instead, it has become a carefully managed process in which roles are distributed among major powers and regional states, and soft tools are used to reshape public awareness and dismantle moral and political resistance.

In this context, the Turkish role stands out as one of the most complex and confusing, not because it leads the normalization project, but because it performs the malicious function of paving the way and containing opposition.

Erdogan presents himself in his political and media address as an advocate for the cause of Palestine, and an opponent of Jewish aggression, employing highly emotional language in defense of Al-Quds and Gaza. Yet when this rhetoric is subjected to critical scrutiny, it reveals that Turkey maintains full diplomatic relations with the Jews, that its trade relations with them continue to grow steadily, and that security coordination persists in sensitive regional issues.

This contradiction between rhetoric and action cannot be explained as fleeting duplicity. It is a deliberate policy aimed at absorbing Muslim popular anger, while preserving integration into both the regional and international orders.

Herein lies the danger of the Turkish role: Normalization without shock, and concession without declaration.

The Syrian arena is among those most affected by Turkish policy, given the military presence, control over wide areas in northern Syria, influence over armed factions, and grip on the sector of refugees, the economy, and border crossings.

In this context, Erdoğan does not push Syrians toward normalization with the Jews through direct pressure, but instead subjects them to a longer and more effective track, based on exhaustion and the reordering of priorities, so that Syrian awareness is gradually reshaped, and livelihood concerns are placed ahead of the greater causes.

Turkey performs a distinctive role in the normalization process, becoming a bridge between rejecting populations, and normalizing regimes, a psychological mediator that softens the shock, and an instrument for containing Islamic awareness without direct confrontation, because it does not lead the project, but contributes to passing it with the lowest possible political cost.

The most dangerous forms of normalization are not those imposed by military force, but those passed off in the name of realism, wrapped in the language of interest, and marketed after the exhaustion of peoples, until they lose confidence in the possibility of change.

Within this framework, the Turkish role becomes a model of what can be called silent normalization, that which eliminates rejection, without announcing acceptance.

Normalization, marketed in the name of realism, is nothing but postponed surrender. Therefore, remaining silent on this path is not neutrality, and keeping quiet about it is not wisdom. Instead, silence is indirect participation in liquidating the issue and re-engineering the region to suit the Jews.

Normalization with the Jews is neither a transient political matter, nor a tactical option, subject to the balance of interests. At its core, it is an ideological and moral stance, before it is a political one. Palestine is not a border-dispute territory but occupied Islamic land, whilst the Jewish entity is not a normal state but one founded entirely on occupation, aggression, and the violation of covenants.

The most dangerous aspect of the normalization path is turning it into a negotiable subject for pragmatism, a course that contradicts the Shariah constants of Islam. Islam makes the rejection of injustice and occupation an integral part of loyalty and disavowal (الولاء والبراء), and a Shariah obligation from Allah (swt).Allah (swt) said,

[وَلا تَرْكَنُوا إِلَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا فَتَمَسَّكُمُ النَّارُ وَمَا لَكُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ مِنْ أَوْلِيَاءَ ثُمَّ لا تُنْصَرُونَ]

“And do not incline toward those who do wrong, lest you be touched by the Fire, and you would not have other than Allah any protectors; then you would not be helped”[Hūd: 113].

So, normalization is not just a signing, but a redefinition of haq (truth) and baatil (falsehood), and whoever loses the battle of definition loses the battle of awareness before losing the battle of the land.

O Peoples of the Islamic Ummah, what surrounds you is not a passing event but policies being drawn up with you as the target. Awareness is not an intellectual luxury. It is a Shariah obligation that preserves the Deen and safeguards dignity. Know what is being plotted against you, distinguish between truth and falsehood, and do not become a tool in the hand of those who mislead or exploit.