'With Allah’s help, these places will return to our rule and authority,' Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi says, adding he dreams of becoming governor of Jerusalem under ErdoganTurkish Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said Saturday that Turkey would one day take control of Jerusalem, making the remarks at a ruling party conference in the Turkish province of Çorum.Speaking at a meeting of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party, Çiftçi said: “Just as we saw the liberation of Damascus, Aleppo and Karabakh, so, with Allah’s help, we will one day also see the liberation of Jerusalem.”1 View gallery Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa ÇiftçiBefore being appointed interior minister in February, Çiftçi served as governor of Erzurum Province.“When I was governor, I had one prayer to Allah,” he said. “The wish I carried in my heart was: ‘Master of the universe, grant me the privilege of serving, even for just one day, as governor of Jerusalem.’”“I still believe today that Allah will show us those days. He will certainly show them to us,” Çiftçi added. “I believed it with all my heart, and I continue to believe it. As in the past, these places will be ours again. They will return, with Allah’s help, to our rule and authority, because we have a world leader like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at our head. We have a leader of global stature.”Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, an Israeli expert on Turkey, criticized the remarks and said he struggled to understand why Israel’s Foreign Ministry had not condemned them.“At a time when Turkey becomes inflamed over statements by Israeli politicians, it completely ignores the effect of statements by its own senior officials,” he said, questioning Israel’s silence.“I cannot imagine what the Turkish response would have been if such a statement had been made against Turkey, about the Turkish capital or another city in its territory,” he added. “Until today, I thought even populism had limits, but this statement left me speechless.”