Turkish Premier Erdogan leaves Davos panel discussion on "Gaza'' 
 
Article Date: 10:44 2009/01/30 
Article ID: 0014 
Davos, January 30 (QNA) -

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan left the panel discussion on "Gaza: The Case for Middle East Peace" and told the organizers that he will not come again to Davos because the moderator left Israeli President Shimon Peres to speak for 25 minutes and gave him only half that time.

Erdogan lashed at Peres and at the audience on Thursday who applauded the Peres speech, and told the audience "shame on you" to applaud this speech when thousands of innocent children and women were killed by the Israelis in Gaza. The moderator stopped Erdogan under the pretext that dinner time was due.

For his part, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa has stated that the thousands of people in Gaza who have been killed, injured or living under siege cannot forget the past even when talking of the future. "You cannot ask people in Gaza living in starvation to be calm, this is against the nature of people, you strangle them, you starve them and then ask them to be quiet, not a single window of opportunity and then you speak about illicit trade, this is the miserable life of the people of Gaza in the past three years," he said.

In the panel discussion on "Gaza: The Case for Middle East Peace", here last night Moussa added that the Palestinians believed in democracy and Hamas won, then less than an hour later Hamas was suspended. He added that the Palestinian people in Gaza are trapped in a game called occupation. Moussa stressed that President Abbas has not achieved anything with the Israelis after a whole year of negotiations.

"We have a new administration in the US, and there are prospects for the US to return to the role of an honest broker, a role we missed for the past several years," he added. He stressed that the Arabs have not received an answer from Israel for the past seven years regarding the Arab initiative launched in a past Arab Summit. "We see no obstacle if Israel withdraws and allows the establishment of a Palestinian state, we will have no problem, but we must also receive an authorized Israeli answer to the Arab initiative," said Moussa. "If we reach 31 December 2009 with no results, then we can reconsider," he stressed.(qna) MD

PTT pride: Erdogan at World Economic Forum cites our editor Gilad Atzmon

By Mary Rizzo • Jan 30th, 2009 at 9:43 •

http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/01/30/ptt-pride-erdogan-at-world-economic-forum-cites-our-editor-gilad-atzmon/

The World Economic Forum at Davos had an incredible moment of truth… After Shimon Peres was allowed to justify the wanton killing that the Jewish State engaged in over the territory they have strangled with their inhumane blockade, (and received applause for it by the men and women waiting for their champaign glasses to be filled after the dinner that of course was more important to them than hearing the words of the Prime Minister of the largest European State with a Muslim majority and one of the most strategic areas on the face of the earth), Tayyip Erdogan begins to respond to the barrage of filth poured out by Peres.

At the moment, our Turkish translators in www.tlaxcala.es are getting a verbatim translation of the intervention, which we will post up here as soon as it is available, but in the meantime,

Moderator: There was a heated debate here. This is a discussion that can last for hours. We are already out of time.

Erdogan: One minute.

Moderator: Mr. President, well, you know

Erdodan: One minute, one minute! No! One minute.

Moderator: Ok, but I want you not to speak more than one minute.

Erdogan: Mr. Peres, you are older than me. Your voice is very loud. I know that you are speaking aloud because of the requirement of a sense of guilt. My voice will not be that loud. About murdering, you know killing very well. I am well aware how you murdered children on beaches. Two former prime ministers of your country had important sayings to me. You have former prime ministers who say When I entered Palestine over armed combat cars, I consider myself more and more pleased. I can give their names, maybe some of you wonder. Besides, I condemn those of you who applaud this persecution. Because applauding these killers who murdered those children, who massacred those people is, I believe, also another crime committed against humanity. Look, we cannot disregard a reality here. Here, I jotted down a lot of notes, but I dont have time to answer all of them. But, I will say you only two things:

Moderator: Excuse me Prime Minister, we can't start the debate again.

Erdogan: Excuse me. First, excuse me, do NOT interrupt me! First, The Old Testament says in the 6th commandment: You shall not kill! But there is murder here. Second, this is also very interesting. Gilad Atzmon, a Jew himself, says: Israeli barbarity is far beyond even ordinary cruelty. Besides, Avi Shlaim, Professor of Oxford who performed his military duty in Israeli army, says in the Guardian the following:

Moderator: Prime Minister, Prime Minister. I wanna ask to our host.

Erdogan: Israel became a gangster state. (to the moderator) I thank you, too. For me, Davos is done for me from now on. I will not come again. You all know this in this way. You are not letting us speak. (Showing Peres) He spoke for 25 minutes, but you let e speak 12 minutes. No way!

********************

Well, we at PTT think several things must be said: 1) More leaders should have the courage to speak out about the atrocities and to isolate Israel from sitting on a stage and endorsing their violence, which has no justification. That Erdogan did this, (and used also as his source writing by one of our editors, Gilad Atzmon), can only encourage us in our belief that sooner or later even people responsible for the guiding of a country numbering almost 63 million people, will stand up to Israel and say enough is enough. We are waiting for other Leaders to follow, the ice has been broken.

2) To state the obvious is no longer verboten. Things have to be called with their names, a State that is a menace to humanity and violent beyond all decency MUST be denounced in the loudest terms possible. We can't walk on eggshells anymore. For a leader to express the thoughts of his people (finally) rather than to kowtow to some impossible situation of sitting on the fence (and Turkey in many ways is a nation that has a lot to answer for in past and recent atrocities, as well as its position of support for the invasion of Iraq) moves a step in the right direction. It is NOT in the interests of Turkey to acquiesce all horrors and violence just to stay in the club. It is sometimes BEST to walk off when you realise the platform is there to present a justification for what cannot be justified. We believe that this brave action, widely appreciated by millions, is the first of a series. Of the entire Davos Forum, this was the moment cited in the news.. It is food for thought.

3) NO normalisation with Israel until they accept the rules of International Law. Thank you PM Erdogan, for listening to us, for using our words, and for using that international platform for expressing the views that we know millions of humanitarian people hold. You are enabling all of us. Palestine Think Tank

Erdogan gets hero's welcome upon his return to Turkey

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE50T20E20090130?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

(excerpt)

By Paul de Bendern

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan received a hero's welcome on his return to Istanbul on Friday after accusing Israel of "knowing very well how to kill" during a heated debate at the World Economic Forum.

Erdogan stormed out of a debate on Israel's Gaza offensive on Thursday, and vowed he might never return to the annual gathering of the rich and powerful in Davos.

President Shimon Peres had launched a fiery defense of his country's offensive in Gaza over the past month, and with a raised voice and pointed finger, questioned what Erdogan would do if rockets were fired at Istanbul every night.

"When it comes to killing, you know very well how to kill," Erdogan, visibly angry, responded as he sat next to Peres at the debate, which also included United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

Turkey, a predominantly Muslim but secular country that historically has had good ties with Israel and the Arab world, played a role in helping broker an end to the Gaza offensive this month, particularly by lobbying the Islamist Hamas group to declare a ceasefire.

Thousands of people gathered at Istanbul's Ataturk airport to greet Erdogan when he returned, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags and chanting "Turkey is proud of you."

"Our people would have expected the same reaction from any Turkish prime minister," he told a news conference at Ataturk airport on Friday morning after speaking to the crowd.

"This was a matter of the esteem and prestige of my country. Hence, my reaction had to be clear. I could not have allowed anyone to poison the prestige and in particular the honor of my country," he said.

"Our reproaches are not against the Israeli people or Jews. Our reproach is totally against the Israeli administration," Erdogan said.

Erdogan Leaves Davos Gaza Panel in Protest

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan left a Middle East panel at the World Economic Forum in protest at being allocated less time to speak than Israeli President Shimon Peres. No permanent rift seems to have taken place.

Bıa news centre - Davos

30-01-2009

A panel on the Middle East process at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, ended with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan leaving in protest.

Criticism of attacks and conditions in Gaza

In his first speech in Davos, Erdoğan had said that Gaza had been turned into an open-air prison, isolated from the world. He criticised the fact that Israel had ignored a UN resolution and also attacked UN compounds in Gaza. He accused the rest of the world of having stood by and watched.

Following Israeli President Shimon Peres’ turn, Erdoğan wanted to reply. The moderator of the panel, journalist David Ignatius from the Washington Post, allowed him one minute and then tried to cut him off.

Erdoğan later explained that he walked out of the panel angered by the discrepancy in time allowed him and the other speakers of the panel, UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon and Amr Moussa, former Egyptian foreign minister and now General Secretary of the Arab League, in comparison to Peres.

Loud voice "sign of guilt"

He was also angered by Peres’ manner of addressing him, sometimes raising his voice and pointing his finger at Erdoğan.

In his short reply after Peres’ speech, Erdoğan said that Peres was older than him and that he would not raise his voice like he had done. He said that raising his voice was a sign of Peres’ guilt.

He added that Israel had been killing children, and that there were former Israeli Prime Ministers who had expressed their pleasure at using tanks against Palestinians. He reminded Peres of the 6th commandment not to kill and also cited an Israeli condemning the attacks in Gaza.

Leaving the panel, Erdoğan told journalists that Peres had been allowed to speak for 25 minutes, whereas he had only been allocated 12 minutes. His last words when leaving the panel had been, in Turkish, “From today, Davos is finished for me. I will not come back.”

Press conference after the event

Davos organiser Klaus Schwab and Erdoğan later held a short press briefing, in which Schwab expressed his sorrow for the event and his hope that the panelists could focus on common points to move forward.

Erdoğan seemed softened, not directly ruling out coming back to Davos. He said that his reaction had been not to Israel or Davos, but to the unfair moderation of the panel. He added that Peres’ style of speaking had been incompatible with an international panel.

Apology from Peres, hero's welcome in Istanbul

On Friday early morning, Shimon Peres called Erdoğan and apologised for his raised voice, explaining that he was hard of hearing. The two agreed that cooperation between the two countries would continue.

Erdoğan’s reaction has to be seen not only in the light of the panel, but also in the context of failed negotiations between Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Hamas. Turkey had taken a leading role in talks prior to the Gaza attacks.

On his arrival back in Istanbul early Friday morning, Erdoğan was greeted by thousands of supporters waving Turkish and Palestinian flags.  (TK)