Erdogan Slams Muslim Leaders' Passive Response to Suffering of Palestinians in Gaza

[ 18/01/2010 - 11:13 AM ]

ANKARA, (PIC)--

Turkish premier Recep Erdogan on Sunday condemned the passive positions of Muslim leaders towards the suffering of the Palestinian people in the Gaza strip as “pathetic.”

“The governments have failed to display the reactions that the world's Muslims expected from them; this has been a pitiful aspect of the matter," Erdogan told the French news agency shortly before leaving for the UAE and then on to Saudi Arabia.

He made these remarks when asked to compare the attitude of other Muslim countries to Turkey's outbursts against Israel over its devastating war on Gaza last year and its ongoing blockade of the impoverished Strip.

Turkish president Abdullah Gul and Erdogan refused to meet with Israeli war minister Ehud Barak who visited Ankara on Sunday to defuse tensions between the two sides after Israel deliberately humiliated the Turkish ambassador.

In another context, minister of economy Ziyad Zaza stated Sunday that the Palestinian people would never be subordinates to Israel and the American administration or submissive to anyone as long as their "noble blood kept running in their arteries".

Zaza said that the Israeli brutal war on Gaza was aimed to topple the government, but the Palestinian people wanted otherwise and supported their government which won the admiration and respect of all nations.

This came during a ceremony organized by the national campaign to commemorate the Israeli war on Gaza in the presence of Palestinian officials, dignitaries and citizens.

He stressed that the war on Gaza did not end since the blockade is still imposed on all aspects of life in the Strip, adding that the government is confronting many wars at the economic, political and social levels in order to alleviate the humanitarian suffering of citizens.

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