ERDOÐAN SAYS ISRAEL~RS GAZA BLOCKADE UNACCEPTABLE
Today’s Zaman
Jan 23 2008
Turkey
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan yesterday condemned Israel for
a blockade it has imposed on the Gaza Strip, saying the Palestinians
there are faced with a "humanitarian tragedy."
Israel blockaded Gaza on Thursday after rocket attacks by Palestinian
militants, halting fuel shipments. Three days later, Gaza’s only
power plant, which provides electricity to about one-third of Gaza’s
1.5 million residents, shut down. Under heavy international pressure,
Israel allowed fuel for the plant back into Gaza on Tuesday.
"Palestine is already an open air prison. People living in Gaza are
faced with severe difficulties in the supply of water, electricity,
medicine and food. These people face a humanitarian tragedy,"
Erdoðan told members of his ruling Justice and Development Party
(AK Party) at a weekly meeting in Parliament. "We have difficulties
in understanding this [blockade]."
He also criticized Israeli officials for remarks linking the blockade
to rocket attacks, saying they fail to explain how many Israelis died
in these attacks. "It is not possible to accept such acts that punish
2 million people. It is not understandable to collectively punish a
community because some of them are doing wrong things."
This was the second time Erdoðan criticized Israel for its actions
against the Palestinians. Earlier this month, he said the United
States, not Israel, should man a barrier between Israel and Palestinian
territories and complained that even his car had been forced to wait
for half an hour while trying to cross to the Palestinian side after
talks in Israel during an official visit in the past.
Israel largely closed Gaza’s crossings to all but humanitarian goods
in June after Hamas seized control of the territory.
Warning to Obama
Erdoðan also responded to US presidential candidate Barack Obama after
he pledged he would support Armenian claims of genocide at the hands
of the late Ottoman Empire if he wins the race. He reiterated that
Turkish-US ties would receive a serious blow if the Congress passes
a resolution recognizing Armenian claims of genocide.
"Everybody knows that passage of such a resolution would lead
to irremediable wounds in Turkey-US relations," Erdoðan said in
Parliament. According to the prime minister, such remarks stem
from lack of sufficient information on the part of the presidential
candidates about US foreign policy in general.
"These unfortunate remarks by a presidential candidate risk casting
a shadow on our relations," Erdoðan said. "Our relations should not
be sacrificed due to slander campaigns by certain lobbies."
Obama pledged to support passage of the resolution, shelved twice in
the US Congress under pressure from the administration, which feared
it risked spoiling ties with NATO ally Turkey, in a letter sent to a
leading American-Armenian group, the Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA).
Obama wrote in the Jan. 19 letter that he had a "firmly held conviction
that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion,
or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by
an overwhelming body of historical evidence."
"The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats
to distort historical facts is an untenable policy. As a senator,
I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, and
as president I will recognize the Armenian genocide," Obama said in
the letter.
Last year, despite pleas from the George W. Bush administration,
the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US House of Representatives
passed a nonbinding resolution that described the events of 1915 as
genocide. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House and an ardent supporter of
the Armenian claims, has so far not brought the resolution to the House
floor after a strong appeal from the Bush administration that passage
of the resolution would deeply harm relations with NATO ally Turkey.
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