Turkish PM slams Israel as a 'persecutor'

(AFP) – 9 hours ago

ANKARA — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Israel as a "persecutor" on Saturday in the latest verbal volley since the Gaza offensive raised tensions between the regional allies.

"Turkey has never, in its history, been on the side of persecutors, 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 are against injustice," he said in the televised remarks.

Ties between the strategic allies began to sour in January when Turkey strongly condemned Israel's 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip, which was launched to counter rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

Relations took another sharp downturn last week when Ankara excluded the Jewish state from annual joint military exercises, prompting a rebuke from the United States.

And in recent days, Israel criticised a Turkish state television series that depicts Israeli soldiers deliberately killing Palestinian children.

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

Erdogan has been at the forefront of international criticism of the Gaza offensive.

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."

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There was a story about a stone and a glass room...but I couldn't exactly remember what it was about. Somehow it seems logical to bring it up.

Yeah, this kike I know wanted to ask me (as I am now apparently the resident expert on Turks among kikes I know) how Erdoğan gets off accusing China of genocide against Uyğurlar. My answer was that Erdoğan is a politician and he wants Turks to think he is sticking up for them and their values. Also, pretty much anyone can insult China safely because they are the third most evil country on the planet.

Anyway, Erdoğan. I don't like him. I don't like the AKP. They're counterrevolutionaries. They're better than the CHP in a lot of ways, but that says very little. If I thought being better than the CHP made you good... I would have very low standards. Just shockingly low.

But Erdoğan is not Milošević. So as much as I want to, and believe me I do, I cannot compare his comments:

"Turkey has never, in its history, been on the side of persecutors, it has always defended the oppressed,"

and

"Turkey has not hostility against any country, but ... we are against injustice,"

to Saint Slobodan's famous utterance:

"Serbs have never in the whole of their history conquered and exploited others. Their national and historical being has been liberational throughout the whole of history and through two world wars, as it is today. They liberated themselves and when they could they also helped others to liberate themselves."

I cannot do it. What I can do is point out that while he does not seem to be doing what Milošević did in general (drumbeat a nationalism that caused the rape and murder of innocents, tacitly endorse warlords whose methods amounted to mass rape and murder, telling Serbs how persecuted they had been by the same Croats whose bloody Serb-killing hands he was shaking as he made deals about how to divide up Bosnia, etc.) he is making the specific Milošević-style mistake of claiming the infinite historical innocence and pure-heartedness of his people.

THAT BEING SAID he is taking this position in criticising Israel, which claims to have the "most moral army in the world", which pretty much amounts to the same thing. Except that that oh-so-moral army is indisputably killing and oppressing people now.

So the headline should read: Rich liar criticises other rich liars for killing people.

Trying really hard to think of a single incident in which Turkey has not defended the oppressed? I know, I'm still trying to think of one too.

There must be ONE, but WHEN? LET'S THINK HARDER

This part's funny too:

What exactly about that depiction do you intend to criticise, o Israel?