ISTANBUL
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that what has been happening in Syria is a new Karbala.
"What happened in Karbala 1,332 years ago is what happens in Syria today," Premier Erdogan said at his speech at an international conference titled "Arab Spring and Peace in the New Middle East: Muslim and Christian Perspectives" conference in Istanbul.
Erdogan said that he knew that killing was forbidden not only in Islam but also in all divine religions.
Premier Erdogan said that they would never forget the tragedy of Karbala and that painful incident must be a lesson to all, referring to a battle between supporters and relatives of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein ibn Ali on the one side and a military detachment from the forces of Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph, on the other in 680. Hussein ibn Ali was martyred during the battle of Karbala.
Islam considered human being as the most sacred one in all creatures regardless of his/her faith, sect or status, he said, adding that Turkey did not have any prejudices toward any ethnical origin, religion or any sect.
People's raising their voice against oppressive regime is natural
Erdogan has said that the developments in several Middle Eastern and North African countries had not occurred due to some people's manipulation, it had emerged as a natural consequence.
"People's speaking out their desire influentially, claiming possessions, raising their voice against oppressive regime is a tradition of this region, and it is extremely natural," Erdogan said.
Stating that people in the Middle East and North African countries became more responsive to their rights, "What is not natural is cruelty, oppression, and ignoring your own people's desires. As a matter of fact, what happened has happened in terms of fate, and the history of these countries has now started flowing in its stream bed," Erdogan said.
Erdogan also stated that it would be wrong to expect from new administrations in those countries to achieve something in a very short time.
"In and out of the country, everybody should give sometime to those administrations. Now, their desire came to power. We strongly believed that new administrations in those countries will advocate justice and equality. Particularly, it is a heavy responsibility for whole people and managements in the region to look after rights of minorities and people who don't have advantages," Erdogan said.
