Turkiye’s Erdogan says Israel’s Netanyahu ‘will be tried as war criminal’
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said today that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would eventually be tried as a war criminal over Israel’s ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip, while slamming Western countries supporting Israel. — AFP pic
Monday, 04 Dec 2023 9:51 PM MYT
Netanyahu the butcher of Gaza
ISTANBUL, Dec 4 — Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said today that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would eventually be tried as a war criminal over Israel’s ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip, while slamming Western countries supporting Israel.
Turkiye, which supports a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, has sharply criticised Israel over its campaign in Gaza, launched in response to militant group Hamas’ rampage on October 7. More than 15,500 people have been killed in the Israeli air and ground attacks, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
In a speech to an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) committee meeting in Istanbul, Erdogan said the Western nations supporting Israel were giving it “unconditional support to kill babies” and were complicit in its crimes.
“Beyond being a war criminal, Netanyahu, who is the butcher of Gaza right now, will be tried as the butcher of Gaza, just as Milosevic was tried,” Erdogan said, in reference to Yugoslav ex-President Slobodan Milosevic who was tried for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes at a tribunal in The Hague.
“Those who try to skip over the deaths of all those innocent people by using the excuse of Hamas have nothing left to say to humanity,” he added, referring to Western powers, which he said were “blind and deaf”.
Unlike most of its Western allies and some Gulf states, Nato member Turkiye does not view Hamas as a terrorist group and hosts some of its members.
Erdogan, whose ruling party has Islamist roots, said a so-called contact group of Muslim countries, which was formed by the OIC and Arab League last month to hold talks on Gaza with Western countries and others, would continue discussions until the fighting in Gaza stopped, but added more must be done.
“We must absolutely evaluate the United Nations Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court (ICC) within this framework,” he said, adding Israel’s nuclear arsenal must not be forgotten.
Erdogan, who has long called for the United Nations Security Council to be reformed to be more inclusive, also said that the UN had failed the test in Gaza and called for an urgent reform, repeating that the Security Council’s five permanent members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — did not represent the world.
“The sincere efforts of Secretary General (Antonio) Guterres were sabotaged by the Security Council members,” he said. “None of us have to accept this system,” he added.
“It is not possible for such a structure to bring peace or hope to humanity.” — Reuters
Ya, Erdogan arguably should be prosecuted for Tukiye's brutal suppression of the Kurdish minority.
ReplyDeleteIt's a key stumbling block in the talks on Turkey's joining the EU.
Of course, some EU members object to Turkey joining, by any means, but Turkey's brutish Kurdish human rights oppression is a real and objective issue.
Such an inconsequential expression of yr know-nothingness about human behavourism!
ReplyDeletePerhaps, that's also bcoz of yr deeply indoctrinated anmokausai indeptedness.
A story for yr bedtime reflection.
In 1937, John Rabe (1882–1950), the Nazi director of the Nanking branch of Siemens and chairman of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone, saved over 200,000 Chinese during the Nanking massacre.
A known Nazis, going beyond & opposite direction of his own idealism to save Nanking Chinese from the Japanese ongoing massacre then!
One can despite the contemptuous idealism exhibited within Nazism BUT one must give due credit for a person doing/saying the right thing at the desperate time when most of the spurious self-righteous claimants play their acts of pulling cotton over the eyes of the world!