Turkey's Jewish community fears that fury over Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla could provoke anti-Semitism in the Muslim-majority nation, a newspaper editor said Wednesday.
"We are definitely worried, because that (the anger in Turkey) can turn very easily to anti-Semitism," Ivo Molinas, the editor in chief of the weekly Istanbul-based publication Salom, told AFP.
"The rhetoric used by the Prime Minister has been very radical," added Molinas, part of the 20,000-member Jewish community residing in Turkey.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched a series of harsh verbal attacks on Israel since Monday's raid. Most of the bloodshed occurred on a Turkish-flagged ship and at least four Turks were among the dead.
At the Turkish parliament on Tuesday, he accused Israel of a "bloody massacre" and declared: "Now Israel has shown to all the world how well it knows how to kill.”
A furious Erdogan slammed Israel as "a festering boil in the Middle East", while on Wednesday his office said he had told US President Barack Obama that Israel risks losing Turkey, its "sole friend" in the region.
More than 20,000 people demonstrated in Istanbul after the aid flotilla raid, many of them burning Israeli flags, and Turkey had recalled its ambassador to Israel, Gabby Levy.
"But the Prime Minister also said yesterday (Tuesday) that he was against anti-Semitism. He says it during each crisis but he repeated it yesterday," said Molinas, whose newspaper has a circulation of around 5,000.
"Both he and the leaders of the opposition have said that all of this will have no effect on the Jews of Turkey," he added.
The leader of Turkey's Jewish community, Sami Herman, declined to make any immediate comment but Interior Minister Besir Atalay said Turkey has beefed up security to protect its Jewish minority as well as Israel's diplomatic missions amid the tensions.
Turkey’s Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Haleva publicly criticized Israel’s action against the flotilla, which he called a "provocation," and said that Israel should have acted differently, but sources interpreted his declarations rather as an expression of the fears of the Jewish community.
About 26,000 Jews live in Turkey, mostly in Istanbul, where some 20 synagogues are active. Istanbul has a Jewish elementary and high school, and Izmir has a Jewish elementary school.
Turkey became Israel's chief regional ally when the two signed a military cooperation deal in 1996. But relations have soured since Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza last year amid criticism from Erdogan's Islamist-rooted government.
Calls to review ties with Israel
Turkish MPs on Wednesday called on the government to review its political, military and economic ties with Israel.
In a declaration approved by a show of hands, the lawmakers also said Israel must formally apologize for the raid on the flotilla, pay compensation to the victims and bring those responsible to justice.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said 210 Turks were scheduled to be flown home from Israel on Turkish planes later Wednesday. He said Israel also assured Turkey it would not put any Turkish protesters on trial.
He had earlier warned that Turkey would review its relations with Israel if they were not freed.
According to Israeli media, the Foreign Ministry has ordered the families of its diplomats in Turkey to leave that country.
State-run Israel radio and other stations and newspapers say the diplomatic mission itself will remain in Turkey.