ISTANBUL
The United Nations must take measures against Israeli aggression in Gaza, Turkey’s prime minister and presidential candidate has said.
Speaking at an Eid reception in Istanbul on Monday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “There is no example of a right to self-defense in history as pretended by Israel and the West to legitimize massacres of the Palestinians. Not only infants, children, mothers and other innocent people are being killed in Gaza. Humanity is also being killed.”
Erdogan condemned Israel for its actions in Gaza as well as its supporters. “One day the innocent infants and children will haunt their Israeli murderers and the people who support Israel,” he added.
Referring to opponents of the government’s pro-Palestinian stance, he said such people would be “happy to see a complete eradication of the Palestinians from the face of the earth.”
Erdogan sent his Eid wishes to the Palestinian victims of the Israeli bombardment.
Turning to Iraq, he attacked those who accused the Justice and Development Party government of doing too little to protect the Turkmen minority. He said: “No previous government has stood by the Iraqi Turkmens as we have."
At least 1,055 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, have been killed since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on July 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
www.aa.com.tr/en
