People alleging Turkey of helping only Palestinians and ignoring Iraqi Turkmens are trying to fuel racist sentiments, Turkish Prime Minister and presidential candidate Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday.
"Oppressed people deserve assistance regardless of their religion, ethnicity, race or color," Erdogan told his supporters at an election rally in the southern city of Mersin. “We have been helping the oppressed people around the world for twelve years.”
In a televised interview on Wednesday, the two main opposition parties' joint presidential candidate Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu accused the government of not caring about Iraqi Turkmens who are suffering under the de facto rule of the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
"Turkey will continue to support oppressed people of the world including Palestinians and Turkmens with all of its means," said Erdogan.
The three-million strong Turkmen community is the third-largest ethnic group in Iraq, constituting 13 percent of the population.
Turkmens have been caught in the crossfire as Iraq saw a marked increase in sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims in June, as a coalition of armed opposition groups led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL, took control of large swathes of the country's predominantly Sunni provinces.
On 10 June, ISIL-led fighters captured Iraq's second largest city of Mosul and soon afterwards took control of a number of other key cities and towns including Turkmen-majority Tal Afar.
- Israeli offensive in Gaza
“The world has turned a blind eye to Israeli murders of the innocent Palestinian people including women, children and infants," Erdogan said.
“Finally the oppressed people of Palestine will be victorious and the hell will be ready waiting for the oppressors and aggressors like Israel.”
The Palestinian death toll from Israel's devastating military offensive against the Gaza Strip rose to 771 on Thursday, a Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman has said.
Since July 7, Israel has pummeled the Gaza Strip – from air, land and sea – with the ostensible aim of halting Palestinian rocket fire.
Last week, Israel expanded its offensive to include ground operations, sending thousands of troops into the embattled coastal enclave.
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