Turkey's PM says against tyrants, Israel vows war against Gaza report

Erdogan said "Turkey has never, in its history, been on the side of tyrants, it has always defended the oppressed," slamming Israel.

Sunday, 18 October 2009 13:01



World Bulletin / News Desk

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Israel as a "tyrant" on Saturday.

"Turkey has never, in its history, been on the side of tyrants, it has always defended the oppressed," Erdogan said without directly naming Israel in a speech in the central city of Kirsehir.

"Turkey has not hostility against any country, but we wants peace in country and world. we are against injustice," he said in the televised remarks.

Erdogan said, When some children open their eyes to a bright future, some open their eyes to a desperate future, pain and phosphorus bombs. This is no an acceptable situation.

Turkey's ties with Israel have been strained over Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip in December and January that killed nearly 1500 Palestinians, a third of them were children.

Relations took another sharp downturn last week when Ankara excluded the Jewish state from annual joint military exercises over Gaza sufferings.

And in recent days, Turkey rules out any censorship against TV series that shows Israeli soldiers deliberately killing Palestinian children.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday that relations would improve when Israel ends the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza and Middle East peace efforts are revived.

In an unprecedented outburst, he stormed out of a debate at the World Economic Forum in January, accusing Israel of "barbarian" acts and telling Israeli President Shimon Peres, sitting next to him, that "you know well how to kill people."

"Years"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a lengthy diplomatic fight against United Nations charges that Israel committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip, an official said on Saturday.

A U.N. report last month found that Israel "punished and terrorised" civilians in Gaza in a disproportionate attack in its three-week war on the territory earlier this year.

Israeli forces deliberately attacked civilians, failed to take precautions to minimize loss of civilian life and cited strong evidence Israeli forces committed "grave breaches" of the Geneva Convention, the 575-page report noted.

Israel has rejected a cooperation with the Goldstone team or had not allowed it onto its territory.

The firing of white phosphorous shells and the use of high explosive artillery shells were listed as "violations of humanitarian law."

Netanyahu said that he would object to Israelis standing trial for war crimes.

"Israel must delegitimise the delegitimisation," Netanyahu said, according to an Israeli official. He said the campaign "would not take just a week or two but possibly years."

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Friday that "Israel totally and completely rejected the U.N. council's vote condemning Israel. However, Ayalon expressed his "relief" that he thought Israel would "not ultimately suffer any significant consequences."

Palestinians promise new probe

Twenty-five states including China and Russia endorsed the resolution passed by the council meeting in Geneva, while six including the United States voted against. Eleven states abstained. Four, including France and Britain, did not vote at all.

The resolution endorsed Goldstone's recommendation that the war crimes issue be referred to the U.N. Security Council if the sides failed to conduct credible domestic investigations within six months, and possibly then to the International Criminal Court.

Palestinians have said they would name committees to see to implementation of Goldstone's recommendations. Hamas said on Friday it would investigate.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would also see to forming a panel to implement the report "so it doesn't end up lying on a shelf like other resolutions do," said an aide, Yasser Abed-Rabbo, in the West Bank.

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^ erdogan has a lot of balz out there then any other leader out there i give him that