Addressing the First Session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ministerial Conference on Social Development, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made extreme allegations against Israel while calling on the 57 member states with a collective population of over 1.8 billion Muslims to unite against Israel. 

Among his claims, Erdogan said that the Israeli government is “openly executing” Palestinians in the streets. 

“Unfortunately, the situation in Palestine and in its inseparable part, Al-Quds, gets worse day by day,” Erdogan said. “Israel’s attitude which knows no rights, law, justice or humanity continuously deepens the crisis in the region to the detriment of Muslims.”

“We today face a Palestine on the streets of which innocent girls, fathers, mothers, elderly people, children, and young people are openly executed and mercilessly murdered by Israel,” Erdogan said. “What is more, Western countries and — I regret to say — some Arab states practically encourage this brutality of Israel. We, as Turkey, most of the time feel ourselves left alone in our objections to the oppression in Al-Quds and Palestine.”

“We will continue to uphold the truth and justice and stand by the oppressed at all costs. We will never stop defending the Al-Quds cause and the rights of the Palestinians or acting in solidarity with all the oppressed.”

“The better we protect children, women, elderly and disabled against western threats, the more we protect our family structure,” he said.

A report in 2018 by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) investigated the possible scenario that would play out if Erdogan followed through with his threat to use the OIC to form an army against Israel and the West. The study was based on an article in the Turkish daily Yeni Şafak, a media outlet that is closely affiliated with Erdoğan and his ruling AKP party. The article titled, “A Call for Urgent Action,” which also appeared on the paper’s website under the title, “What If an Army of Islam Was Formed Against Israel?” called on the OIC member states to form a joint “Army of Islam” to besiege and attack the state of Israel. The article went into specifics, describing in detail how such an army would overwhelm the Jewish State.

If the OIC member states unite and form a joint military force, it will be the largest army in the world,” the article said. “These countries’ total population is 1,674,526,931. The number of soldiers in active service in these countries is at least 5,206,100. Their [overall] military defense budget, of $174,728,420, is also worthy of emphasis.”

“As for Israel, it is significantly inferior,” the article continued. “The population of this country, which attempted to occupy Jerusalem while surrounded by Muslim states, is 8,049,314. Note that the population of Istanbul alone exceeds 14 million. The number of soldiers in active service in the [Israeli] occupation forces is 160,000, and [Israel’s] defense budget is approximately $15, 600,000,000.

In comparison, the US military has 1,281,900 active soldiers, less than one-quarter of the proposed Army of Islam. The US military budget, which is the largest of any single country in the world, is approximately $580 billion and over 30 times that of the proposed Army of Islam.