Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and the Fight Against Antisemitism has prevented Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son, Bilal, from entering Israel, the Israeli government stated on January 21 in a press release.

The official communication did not specify whether Bilal Erdogan had recently attempted to enter Israel or whether he had applied for a visa.

“Harming” the State of Israel

“Those who act to harm the State of Israel, undermine its sovereignty, incite against it, and work to boycott it will not be allowed to enter its territory,” minister Amichai Chikli was quoted as saying in the statement that targeted “businessman and son of the President of Turkey, Bilal Erdogan”.

Seriously good kids

Bilal Erdogan has lately become more visible in Turkish media.

Each year during morning hours of the first day of the new year, the Erdogan family’s younger members gather on the street to support Palestine. It is a show of just what good kids they are. While everyone else’s children are nursing hangovers from drinking like crazy on new year’s eve night, Erdogan’s children are framed as serious Muslims, seriously good kids who would never drink to, or celebrate, the infidels’ holidays.

This time around, a few days before the last day of the year and following joint PR moves, the presidents of all of Turkey’s top football clubs held a press meeting together with Bilal Erdogan to call on football fans to join the street event to support Palestine.

Picked out as successor to president father?

It was interesting to note that none of Bilal Erdogan’s siblings or in-laws were present at the event. Rumours circulated in the Turkish media, meanwhile, suggested that Bilal Erdogan has been picked out as the successor to his president father.

In 2024, bne IntelliNews published a profile-type piece on children and sons in-law of Erdogan.

Ripe for a ban

Amid growing rumours in Turkey over Erdogan’s likely successor, Israel’s government clearly decided it should bar Bilal Erdogan from entering the country and point him out as a serious threat to Israel.

In 2024, Israel’s then foreign minister, Israel Katz (@Israel_katz), developed a habit of tagging the X accounts of the officials of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in his tweets targeting Erdogan.

“It is hard to believe that no one at Israel’s foreign ministry is aware that being seen in the same frame as Israel is a negative and being attacked by Israel is a positive for every single politician in every corner of the globe,” bne Intellinews noted.

“I’ve been here [serving as mayor of Istanbul] for five and a half years [since March 2019]. They [the representatives of the Israel foreign ministry in Turkey] haven’t even come to congratulate me. I can’t stop thinking why he [Katz] tagged me on this. These are interesting manoeuvres," the CHP’s Istanbul mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, said in response.

Imamoglu has been sat in jail since March last year.

EU funding channelled

In 2025, local daily Birgun reported that the Turkish National Agency channelled more than a million euro in EU funds to Erdogan regime-associated NGOs in Turkey between 2021 and 2024.

The Turkish Youth Foundation (Tugva), founded by Bilal Erdogan, received €0.7mn in EU funds in the period while the Turkey Youth and Education Service Foundation (Turgev) received €0.4mn and Bulbulzade Dernegi received €0.2mn.

Turgev was launched by Erdogan when he was mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s. Erdogan’s eldest daughter, Esra Albayrak, sits on the board of Turgev.

Bilal’s rector in Kyrgyzstan

In 2024, Turkish media reports suggested that Turkey and Kyrgyzstan were at loggerheads over a Bishkek university board’s wish to replace its rector, who was said to be close to Bilal Erdogan.

Bilal Erdogan is also head of the World Ethnosport Confederation.