Erdogan urges world to recognize Hamas

Erdogan urges world to recognize Hamas

PRESS TV
Sun, 01 Feb 2009 09:24:15 GMT

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for recognition
of Hamas which won a landslide victory in Palestinian elections.

In an interview with The Washington Post published Saturday, Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said isolating Hamas is the reason for the ongoing
tensions in the region.

He criticized world leaders for failing to respect the political will
of the Palestinian people who voted for the Palestinian resistance
movement.

Erdogan said Hamas would have been in a different situation if the
world had given it a chance in politics after winning elections.

The Turkish prime minister said Hamas would not be able to change the
situation as long as Palestine was "an open air prison".

Hamas won the 2006 Parliamentary elections with 74 of the 132 available
seats. The rival ruling Fatah faction got only 45 seats.

Western-backed Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas of
Fatah however fired Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya’s unity
government in June 2007.

Erdogan’s remarks came after his recent public spat with Israel’s
President Shimon Peres, over the Israeli massacre in the Gaza Strip, in
the world economic forum meeting on Thursday.

On Thursday, Erdogan stormed out of the world economic forum in Davos,
Switzerland after a heated debate with Shimon Peres on Gaza.

Erdogan told Peres in the Forum, "Mr. Peres, you are a senior citizen
and you speak in a loud voice. I feel that your raised voice is due to
the guilt you feel.

"But be sure that my voice will not be raised as yours,"

"When it comes to killing, you know very well how to kill."

"I know very well how you hit and killed children on beaches."

Erdogan walked off in front of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and
other panel members complaining that his comments on the conflict were
cut short by the Washington Post’s moderator David Ignatius.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS