Women's Day: Erdogan slams silence on women's suffering

By Davut Demircan and Erdogan Cagatay Zontur

ANKARA (AA) - Lambasting silence in the face of hardships, abuse and killing of women across the globe, Turkey's president on Sunday spoke against the "hypocrisy" of the world celebrating International Women's Day.

"It is hypocrisy that the world with its callused conscience celebrates March 8 International Women's Day," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at an event in Istanbul celebrating Turkey's "Hero Women."

In searing remarks against Greece's recent behavior towards asylum seekers trying to cross from Turkey's northwestern border, he said: "No one is raising their voice against Greece's inhumane treatment of asylum seekers. No one is condemning the persecution of women asylum-seekers on the Turkish-Greek border, their being shot at or beaten," said Erdogan.

Erdogan said he would meet EU officials in Belgium on Monday to discuss the situation of asylum seekers on the Turkish-Greek border.

Despite all the women and children dying in Syria, the issue failed to get proper attention, he said, adding that Turkey's aims in the war-torn never included attempting to "invade or annex Syrian territory."

Erdogan assured that Turkey would accept all solutions in Syria that would safeguard the people of Idlib province, as well as Turkey's borders.