A Turkish minister vowed that Israel would once again come under the control of Turkey, as it had been before the Ottoman Empire collapsed and Turkey became its successor state.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi uttered these terrifying words at a speech at an AK Party council meeting Saturday. Çiftçi had served as governor of the Turkish city of Corum and later the city of Erzurum.

“Just as we witnessed the liberation of Damascus, Aleppo, and Karabakh, God willing, one day we will also witness the liberation of Jerusalem,” he said.

“Just as in the past, those lands will be ours once again,” he said. “God willing, they will come under our sovereignty and dominion once more. Because we have a global leader like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at our helm. A world leader,” he said.

“When I was governor, I had a heartfelt plea to the Almighty … The plea I nurtured deep within me was this: O Lord, grant me the governorship of Jerusalem, even if just for a single day,” he added.

The relationship between Israel and Turkey has been marked by turbulence. After the disastrous Mavi Marmara incident, in which Turkish flotilla activists were killed during an interception by the IDF, Israel repaired relations with Turkey. But since Oct. 7, 2023, Turkey has grown increasingly hostile to Israel. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went so far as to say, at a prayer service marking the end of Ramadan, “May Allah, for the sake of his name … destroy and devastate Zionist Israel.”