TURKEY: Erdogan, Abbas slam U.N. for not taking action against Israeli offensive

Record ID: 217889

  • Title: TURKEY: Erdogan, Abbas slam U.N. for not taking action against Israeli offensive
  • Date: 18th July 2014
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JULY 18, 2014) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING ANTI- ISRAELI SLOGANS PROTESTERS CHANTING ALLAH-U AKBAR (GOD IS GREAT) MEN CHANTING PRO-HAMAS SLOGANS PROTESTERS SETTING A SYMBOLIC STAR OF DAVID ABLAZE AND STAMPING ON IT PROTESTERS CHANTING VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS KICKING SECURITY BARRIERS WATER BEING SPRAYED ON PROTESTERS AS THEY R
  • Embargoed: 2nd August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6XMDSRKBJ9W6DM4DDTKL4FHI9
  • Story Text: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas criticised the United Nations on Friday (July 18) for failure to effectively tackle the escalating crisis in Gaza.
    The Israeli Foreign Ministry accused Erdogan of "incitement", saying it was ordering the return of diplomats' families and trimming staffing to a minimum.
    Erdogan had accused the Jewish state on Wednesday of terrorising the region and likened an Israeli MP and member of the governing coalition to Hitler.
    "The United Nations Security Council, an institution established on an unfair and problematic structure, deepens the problem of legitimacy by taking sides with powerful countries instead of the oppressed during critical incidents such as the recent developments in Middle East. When we scrutinize the structure of the Security Council we see the fact that they have five permanent members and none of them is a Muslim country," Erdogan told the crowd after an iftar dinner.
    Israel stepped up its land offensive in the Gaza Strip with artillery, tanks and gunboats on Friday after Islamist militants there rejected a proposed truce and kept firing rockets into Israeli territory. Israel warned it could "significantly widen" an operation that Palestinian officials said had killed at least 260 people in 10 days, most of them civilians.
    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Turkey and Palestine were working together to resolve the crisis by diplomatic means.
    "We are aware of the inability of U.N. Security Council, but despite their incapability, we are working with our brothers at Turkish Foreign Ministry to carry out the current crisis to U.N. Security Council. We are also working together on ways of taking this matter to U.N. General Assembly," he said.
    Protesters continued to demonstrate outside Israel's Istanbul consulate on Friday night after the Jewish state said it was reducing its diplomatic presence in Turkey.
    Israel took the decision after protesters angered by its ground offensive into Gaza pelted its consulate in Istanbul with stones and draped Palestinian flags on the ambassador's residence in Ankara.
    Around 3,000 people poured onto the streets of Istanbul after Friday prayers, chanting anti-Israel slogans and waving Palestinian flags, while passing cars honked in support.
    There were also smaller demonstrations in Ankara and the eastern city of Diyabakir, but no repeat of earlier violence.
    NATO member Turkey was once Israel's closest ally in the region. But Erdogan has been a strident critic of its treatment of the Palestinians, and has issued a series of broadsides against the Jewish state since the Gaza hostilities erupted.
    Anti-Israeli sentiment runs high in Turkey, particularly among Erdogan's largely conservative Sunni Muslim voter base, who he hopes will hand him victory in Turkey's first direct presidential election next month.
    While bilateral trade remains largely unaffected, Israel's diplomatic presence in Turkey had already been downgraded.
    Relations reached a nadir in 2010, when Israeli commandos stormed the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara sailing as part of a flotilla challenging the Jewish state's naval blockade of Gaza. Ten people were killed.
    Efforts to mend fences picked up after Netanyahu last year apologised for the raid and pledged to pay compensation as part of a U.S.-brokered rapprochement. But progress later stalled.
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