US LAWMAKERS URGE ERDOGAN TO RETRACT ZIONISM SLURS

TERT.AM
11:07 ~U 14.03.13

Eighty-nine members of the US Congress signed a letter calling on
Turkey’s prime minister to retract his comments blasting Zionism,
JTA reported.

The lawmakers, representing both houses of Congress and both political
parties, sent the one-page letter to Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday to
express “our grave disappointment with the statement you made at the
United Nations-sponsored conference in Vienna last month equating
Zionism – the foundation of the Jewish state and the movement for
Jewish self-determination -with fascism and anti-Semitism, and labeling
it a ‘crime against humanity.’ ”

Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who signed the letter, in a statement
sent to JTA said Erdogan’s “outlandish comment is simply unacceptable”
and “further threatens unrest in an already perilous region.”

Another signer, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), said, “Rather than pursuing
closer ties with the United States, Europe and Israel, Erdogan
continues to pursue a policy of distance and isolation from the West.”