By AFP – Dec 24,2018 – JORDAN TIMES

ANKARA — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday lambasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an ‘‘oppressor’’ after he accused Turkey of ‘‘massacres’’ against Kurds in a new war of words.

Netanyahu hit back in a speech later on Sunday, calling Erdogan an ‘‘anti-Semitic dictator’’ who is ‘‘obsessed with Israel’’.

Relations between Turkey and Israel have been tense this year over multiple issues including a controversial law passed by the Israeli parliament in July which defined the country as the nation state of the Jewish people.

‘‘You are an oppressor, cruel and at the head of state terror,’’ Erdogan said of Netanyahu.

In a televised speech in Istanbul, the president also accused Israel of ‘‘occupying Palestine’’ as well as committing ‘‘sins, crimes against humanity, massacres’’.

The latest diplomatic row began after Erdogan warned young Turks on Saturday: ‘‘Do not kick the enemy you have brought down to the ground. You are not a Jew in Israel.’’

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