US claims about Turkish president 'tragicomic'

By Faruk Zorlu

ANKARA (AA) – Attempts to link Turkey’s president with anti-Semitism are “tragicomic,” said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman on Wednesday.

"It is a tragicomic approach that the US associates anti-Semitism with Our President," Ibrahim Kalin said on Twitter, hitting out a US State Department statement claiming the president made “anti-Semitic comments.”

While Israel forcibly expels Palestinians from their homes and massacres civilians and babies, it is unthinkable for Turkey to remain silent about this brutality, said Kalin, speaking of Erdogan’s comments critical of Israel’s aggression against Palestinians.

"The sensitivity of our President to both Jewish Holocaust and the protection of the rights of the Jewish community in Turkey is clear. The biggest witnesses to this are the representatives of the Jewish and other minority communities in Turkey," he added.

He then re-tweeted a statement by Turkey’s Jewish Community organization saying: “While tragedies in the region are deeply saddening – & global rise of anti-Semitism is unacceptable – it is unfair & reprehensible to imply that President Erdogan – @tcbestepe – is anti-Semitic. On the contrary, he has always been constructive, supportive & encouraging towards us.”

Kalin continued: "Instead of responding to our President's justified stance with unfounded accusations, we invite the US to reconsider its biased, wrong, and unfair attitude towards Palestine," he explained.

- ‘Speaking out against murder of civilians is a must’

Those who brand opposition to the murderers of Palestinians as “anti-Semitism” must explain how they are not enemies of Palestine, Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkey’s Justice and Development (AK) Party, said on Twitter.

"Speaking out against those who murder children and innocent civilians in Palestine is justified in all respects and is a necessity of humanity," he added.

The US State Department claim that Erdogan spoke critically of Jews was “false,” he stressed.

Such a claim shows that the US avoided facing the consequences of its disproportionate and unfair support for Israel, he said.

On Tuesday the US State Department condemned what it claimed were “Erdogan’s recent anti-Semitic comments regarding the Jewish people.”

Erdogan on Monday criticized Israel for attacks on civilians in Gaza and the Al-Aqsa Mosque as well as US arms sale to Israel.

Accusing Israel of being a "terrorist state" and violating Jerusalem, he also said it was "ruthlessly" bombing civilians in Gaza.

Erdogan said that those who support Israeli actions in Jerusalem and Gaza would go down in history as being complicit in child murder and crimes against humanity.

At least 227 Palestinians have been killed, including 64 children and 36 women, and 1,620 others injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since May 10, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Health Ministry.

Recent tensions that started in East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan spread to Gaza as a result of Israeli assaults on worshippers at of the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. In 1980, it annexed the entire city, in a move never recognized by the international community.