Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said Turkey's recent polices in the Middle East “have made Israel kneel down” in front of Turkey and isolated the Jewish state in the region.

Speaking during budget talks in the Turkish Parliament, Davutoğlu responded to claims by the opposition that “Turkey's foreign policy is dependent on Western countries and that there is a shift of axis in Turkey's foreign policy towards the East.”

Davutoğlu said Turkey had never remained silent in the face of “oppression.” “It is our policies which made Israel kneel down in the region in front of us. We have always sided with people who demand democracy, not with authoritarian and oppressive regimes,” he said, Today's Zaman reported.