Turkish PM Erdoğan sheds tears on TV over Egyptian father's letter to slain young girl

ISTANBUL

Turkish PM Erdoğan sat speechless for a few moments with tears in his eyes after listening to a prerecorded video of the letter being read out during an interview with Ülke TV. AA photo

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shed tears live TV on Aug. 22 over an Egyptian father's letter to his daughter, who was killed by the security forces in Cairo.

After listening to a prerecorded video of the letter being read out, Erdoğan sat speechless for a few moments with tears in his eyes. He then explained why the letter - written by senior Muslim Brotherhood politician Mohammad al-Beltagy for his daughter Asma - had touched him so much.

"[I] do not have time to share with my children. I come home at around one or two at night missing them. I saw my own children in al-Beltagy's letter," Erdoğan said during the interview, which was aired on private broadcaster Ülke TV.

"I hope the father's attitude gives a lesson to many countries in the Islamic world. I hope it will set an example to our youth. I am not speaking as the prime minister right now, I am a citizen. May God never allow those who want to [break] our unity," he added.

Chemical attack 'obvious'

Speaking in the same interview, Erdoğan also said the images of the reported massacre near Damascus that killed over 1,300 people, including woman and children, left little doubt that it was a chemical attack.

"How could chemical weapons have caused this? Some are still trying to bring comments, but here there is no bullet, no blood stains, no powder, nothing. Everything is very clear, everything is obvious," the prime minister said.

"When we see the dead bodies of those children, it is impossible to stop our tears from flowing," Erdoğan added, while expressing his despair at the poor response from the United Nations.

Reflecting on the incident prompted him to repeat his argument that the U.N. Security Council should be reformed. "It is the same thing with Egypt. We have pressed for the U.N. Security Council to call a meeting, but there wasn't even a condemnation," Erdoğan said.

Foreign Minister Davutoğlu had earlier stated that "all red lines" had been crossed with the latest reports of attacks by the regime's forces.