Erdoğan proposes commission of three religions to govern Jerusalem
ANKARA
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on May 17 proposed a commission with Jewish, Muslim, Christian representatives to govern Jerusalem following Israel’s deadly attacks against Palestinians.
“At this point, we believe there’s a need for a separate arrangement on Jerusalem. To achieve lasting peace and tranquillity in Jerusalem, which contains the indispensable religious symbols of Muslims, Jews, and Christians, everyone must make sacrifices,” he said after a cabinet meeting.
Turkey would lend its political and military support for international efforts to liberate Jerusalem and protect the Palestinian people, he stated.
Erdoğan accused Israel of being a “terrorist state” and harming Jerusalem, seen as holy by these three faiths. He also said it was “ruthlessly” bombing civilians in Gaza.
“This terror state, that has encroached on the privacy of Jerusalem on the one hand, while ruthlessly bombarding civilians in Gaza and levelling a colossal building housing media groups on the other, is Israel,” said the president.
“But you [Israel] are using disproportionate force, and you are dropping bombs on Gaza with your warplanes. Does Gaza have warplanes? No. Yours, with which you strike, are countless.”
Erdoğan says US president ‘writing history with blood on hands’
The president criticized his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, for signing an arms deal with Israel and said he was “writing history with blood on his hands.”
“Today, we saw Biden’s signature for the arms [sale] to Israel. And, we found that this was an approval to sell 850,000 very, very important weapons. When it comes to talking, they speak of disarmament,” he said.
“Mr. Biden, you sided with the Armenians on the so-called Armenian genocide. Now, unfortunately, you are writing history with your bloody hands in these events of seriously disproportionate attacks on Gaza that have caused the martyrdom of hundreds of thousands of people,” Erdoğan added.
His remarks represented one of his strongest attacks on Biden since he took office in the White House in January.
“You forced us to say this. Because we can’t stay silent on this anymore,” Erdoğan stated.
Palestinian territories are “awash with persecution, suffering and blood, like many other territories that lost peace with the end of the Ottomans. And you are supporting that,” he said.
The president also condemned Austria for flying an Israeli flag from its Chancellery building. “Flying a flag of a terrorist state from an official building amounts to living under the projection of terrorism. The Austrian state seems to be trying to make Muslims pay for genocide, to which it subjected the Jews,” he said.
Turkey kills PKK’s ringleader
Erdoğan said the illegal PKK group’s ringleader in Syria, codenamed Sofi Nurettin, was killed by Turkish forces in northern Iraq.
“The PKK’s [official] responsible for Syria ... was rendered ineffective in an operation in Iraq that was conducted as a result of the long-term work of our National Intelligence Directorate,” he stated.
The “neutralized terrorist” was guilty of many attacks against Turkish soldiers in Turkey’s anti-terror Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations, he added.
The president also said the PKK member was also among the ones that had ordered the killing of 13 Turkish hostages, including military and police, who were executed by the group in northern Iraq, during an operation to free them earlier this year.