Turkey's FM Uses Washington platform to speak of Israel war crimes

Speaking at SETA (Foundation for political economic and social research) in Washington, the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, for the first time, that Israel had commited crimes in Gaza. Before the visit by the Turkish PM Erdogan and his Cabinet Members to Washington it had been expected that, in order not to anger the Jewish lobby, Turkey would lower its tone of criticism against Israel. But today Turkish FM Ahmet Davutoglu has turned up his tone against Israel by saying that Israel has commited crimes. Calling the Gaza attack by Israel ‘wrong’ Mr Davuto?lu said: “To use phosphorous bombs against Palestinians is a crime.”

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In addition to his criticisms of Israel, the Turkish FM criticised the EU as well. Responding to the recent claims that Turkey has changed its direction from the West to the East, Davutoglu said that Turkey has been working to join the EU for last 40 years. “It is not Turkey, but the EU which has changed its direction. If the Greek Cypriots had accepted the Annan Plan, if Socialists had come to power in Fransa instead of Sarkozy, if Turkish cypriots, who have said ‘yes to Annan plan’, then our relations with the EU would have been different” said Davutoglu.

Mehmet Nedim Aslan for MEMO