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Erdogan has sudden problem with leaders who kill people
by Scott Gilbreath ~ January 31st, 2009
Earlier this week, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan walked out of a debate with Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres about the war in Gaza. The moderator of the debate gave Mr Erdogan only a minute to respond to a long statement by Mr Peres defending the Gaza action.
Before he left, Erdogan said this. (From the English translation of the YouTube video.)
“I find it very sad that people applaud what you have said because there have been many people who have been killed. And I think that it is very wrong and it’s not humanitarian to applaud any actions which have had that kind of a result.”
He also cited the Sixth Commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”.
The Turkish prime minister is rather selective in his rejection of killing. As FP Passport, the blog of Foreign Policy magazine, points out, Erdogan rolled out the red carpet for a state visit by the international pariah Omar Hassan al-Bashir, President of Sudan.
It is hard to believe that it is a coincidence that the decision to select Sudan, which has the most rigid Islamist regime in Africa, for preferential status occurred after the AKP [Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party], which has its roots in the Turkish Islamist movement, first came to power in November 2002. During a visit to Darfur in March 2006 as a guest of the Sudanese government, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan even famously dismissed claims that a genocide was taking place in the region on the grounds that the alleged perpetrators were Muslims and that the Koran forbade tribalism.
Also, Erdogan has denounced supporters of the campaign for an official apology for mass killings of Armenians that began in 1915.
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January 31st, 2009 at 11:08 AM
My thoughts exactly. Erdogan is no different than most of the non-aligned countries in his hypocrisy. Ignore genocide in Sudan and Rwanda (1.2m dead), ignore state brutality in Myanmar and North Korea (2.5m dead) but don’t ever miss an opportunity to criticize Israel for defending herself against terrorism.
January 31st, 2009 at 01:59 PM
Doesn’t Turkey bomb Kurdish villages across the Iraq border “to defend Turkey against terrorism” Oh, thats not the same!
January 31st, 2009 at 02:34 PM
steve,
you have no idea what you are talking about; can you tell me how many civilians have died during turkish operations in northern iraq? let me give you the answer- ZERO- or 0. and how many civilians died in israeli offense? at least 400. this is the difference between the two. Keep in mind that pkk killed thousands more than palestine terrorist groups. I denounce hamas’s past actions, noone in turkey is defending their terrorist acts- it is just the response from acivilized country such as israel. is this really worth?
January 31st, 2009 at 06:44 PM
bora
CPT or this from here
“Turkey is suspected of sponsoring “mystery killings” of thousands of Kurdish civilians via official support of government-associated death squads. The government bombed Kurdish towns with napalm, “wiped off the map” over 3,000 Kurdish villages, and “violently and illegally displaced upwards of 380,000 Kurds throughout the 1990s.” Amnesty International also suggested that the government may be executing civilians with impunity.”
But it could all be just propaganda and things have charged
January 31st, 2009 at 06:53 PM
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