World
US President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pictured in Washington in 2016. File photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The United States on Tuesday strongly condemned what it said were antisemitic remarks by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, calling on the country’s leaders to refrain from using provocative comments, which has angered Turkish officials.
“The United States strongly condemns President Erdogan’s recent antisemitic comments regarding the Jewish people and finds them reprehensible,” the US State Department said in an official statement on Tuesday.
“We urge President Erdogan and other Turkish leaders to refrain from incendiary remarks, which could incite further violence. We call on Turkey to join the United States in working to end the conflict,” it added.
While the US did not refer to specific comments made by the Turkish president, Erdogan is known to have used antisemitic language in the past.
"They are murderers, to the point that they kill children who are five or six years old. They only are satisfied by sucking their blood," AFP reported him as saying.
The US claims were quickly denied by Turkish officials.
“We strongly condemn the US State Department's targeting of our president. It is an unreasonable and incorrect approach to accuse our president of anti-Semitism. This is a lie told about our president,” tweeted Omer Celik, spokesperson for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The pro-government Daily Sabah shared a statement from a Twitter account representing Turkey’s Jewish community, which said the claims were “unfair and reprehensible.”
US President Joe Biden and Erdogan have had rocky relations, which worsened over the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine.
"You are writing history with your bloody hands in this incident that is a serious disproportionate attack on Gaza, which is leading to the martyrdom of hundreds of thousands of people," Erdogan said during a recent cabinet meeting, referring to Biden.
His comment came after the Biden administration approved a $735 million weapons sale to Israel on Monday, widely criticsed amid fierce Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, which have killed 212 people, including 61 children, according to local health officials.
Tensions in Jerusalem over evictions of Arab families led Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip, to send a flurry of rockets into Israel earlier this month. Ten people have been killed, including two children, since the rocket attacks began in the country.
Ties between the US and Turkey became further strained in April when the US recognized the 1915 Armenian genocide, which Ankara has repeatedly denied.
Ankara’s withdrawal from the 2011 Istanbul convention requiring governments to adopt legislation prosecuting violence against women also prompted criticism from the US.
In December, the US announced sanctions against Turkey’s military procurement agency for the purchase of the S-400 missile system from Russia.
Turkey's foreign ministry condemned the "unilateral" sanctions, blaming the US for "refusal to accept our proposals to resolve the issue through dialogue and diplomacy" in the past.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment