Erdogan: People in the Middle East must control their own fate

People of the Middle East and North Africa should control their own fate, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday.

Speaking in the Algerian capital Algiers during the first formal visit by a Turkish president to the country in 15 years, Erdogan said: “The most important question: Big changes that are taking place in the Middle East and North Africa; will these changes be controlled by the people of these regions or, as has been the case in past centuries, will people from outside control them?”

During a joint press conference with his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Erdogan continued: “Each of us knows that when we import solutions for our own problems, we do not solve them.”

Sources close to the Turkish president told the Anadolu Agency that during the Erdogan- Bouteflika meeting the two leaders agreed on the importance of maintaining Iraq’s territorial integrity. They also agreed that they are against any kind of foreign intervention in Libya.

Iraq has been gripped by a security vacuum since June when the Islamic State (ISIS) stormed the northern province of Mosul and declared what it calls a caliphate state in Syria and Iraq.

Libya has been dogged by political instability since the 2011 ouster and death of long-ruling dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Ever since, rival militias have locked horns, often bringing violence to Libya’s main cities, especially to the capital Tripoli and Benghazi.

Speaking about the Israeli attack against Al-Aqsa Mosque, Erdogan said: “Nobody can say the Palestine issue does not concern us.”

During the attack last week, heavily-armed Israeli security forces broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque with their boots on and shot rubber bullets at Palestinian worshippers.

“The attack is an attack on Turkey,” Erdogan said, as “Al-Aqsa is not only a mosque for Palestinians, it is the mosque for each of us. It is one of the most holy places for each of us.”

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa Mosque represents the world’s third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the Temple Mount, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.