ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday lashed out at the international “silence” over the killing by Israeli fire of dozens of Palestinians on the Gaza border.
“If the silence on Israel’s tyranny continues, the world will rapidly be dragged into a chaos where banditry prevails,” Erdogan said at a dinner in Ankara.
The fresh violence in Gaza on Monday, when Israel’s army killed 60 Palestinians during protests, came as the United States formally moved its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
A fervent advocate of the Palestinian cause, Erdogan on Tuesday accused Israel of “state terror” and “genocide” over the killings.
The Turkish leader will on Friday host a summit of the world’s main pan-Islamic body the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul.
On Wednesday, Erdogan also said the Gaza bloodshed showed “the United Nations has collapsed.”
Turkey has withdrawn its ambassador in Tel Aviv for consultations and told Israel’s ambassador to Ankara to leave, also for an unspecified period of time.
That drew retaliation from Israel, which ordered the Turkish consul in Jerusalem to leave for an unspecified period of time.
Erdogan slams world’s ‘silence’ on ‘Israel’s tyranny’
Erdogan slams world’s ‘silence’ on ‘Israel’s tyranny’
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan: “If the silence on Israel’s tyranny continues, the world will rapidly be dragged into a chaos where banditry prevails.”
- A fervent advocate of the Palestinian cause, Erdogan had previously accused Israel of “state terror” and “genocide” over the killings.
Kurds in Turkiye protest over Syria Aleppo offensive
- Several hundred people gathered in Diyarbakir while hundreds more joined a protest in Istanbul
- In the capital, Ankara, DEM lawmakers protested in front of the Turkish parliament
DIYARBAKIR, Turkiye: Protesters rallied for a second day in Turkiye’s main cities on Thursday to demand an end to a deadly Syrian army offensive against Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, an AFP correspondent said.
Several hundred people gathered in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkiye’s main Kurdish-majority city, while hundreds more joined a protest in Istanbul that was roughly broken up by riot police who arrested around 25 people, the pro-Kurdish DEM party said.
In the capital, Ankara, DEM lawmakers protested in front of the Turkish parliament, denouncing the targeting of Kurds in Aleppo as a crime against humanity.
The protesters demanded an end to the operation by Syrian government forces against the Kurdish-led SDF force in Aleppo, where at least 21 people have been killed in three days of violent clashes.
It was the worst violence in the northwestern city since Syria’s Islamist authorities took power a year ago. The fighting erupted as both sides struggled to implement a March agreement to integrate autonomous Kurdish institutions into the new Syrian state.
In Istanbul, hundreds of protesters waving flags braved heavy rain near Galata Tower to denounce the Aleppo operation under the watchful eye of hundreds of riot police, an AFP correspondent said.
But some of the slogans drew a sharp warning from the police, who moved to roughly break up the gathering and arrested some 25 people, DEM’s Istanbul branch said.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the police attack on the Rojava solidarity action in Sishane. This brutal intervention, oppression, and violence against our young comrades is unacceptable!” the party wrote on X, demanding the immediate release of those arrested.
At the Diyarbakir protest during the afternoon, protesters carried a huge portrait of the jailed PKK militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, an AFP video journalist reported.
“We urge states to act as they did for the Palestinian people, for our Kurdish brothers who are suffering oppression and hardship,” Zeki Alacabey, 64, told AFP in Diyarbakir.
Although Turkiye has embarked on a peace process with the PKK, it remains hostile to the SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, seeing it as an extension of the banned militant group and a major threat along its southern border.
It has repeatedly demanded that the SDF merge into the main Syrian military. A defense ministry official said on Thursday that Ankara was ready to “support” Syria’s operation against the Kurdish fighters if needed.
Demonstrators had already taken to the streets in several major Turkish cities with Kurdish majorities on Wednesday, including Diyarbakir and Van, according to images broadcast by the DEM.
