Turkish envoy slams Israeli meeting with Gülen group member

Fethullah Gülen, the Turkish cleric in self-imposed exile in the US, who has been accused of masterminding the Turkish coup attempt of July 2016

Turkey’s Ambassador to the United States condemned on Sunday the meeting between Israel’s UN representative Gilad Erdan and NBA player Enes Kanter. Kanter is connected to Fethullah Gülen, a US-based cleric blamed for organising the July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.

“Given the warm welcome and support you [Gilad Erdan] granted to his mouthpiece, should people of Israel conclude that you also share [Gülen’s] ill views on Jews? Will this be the basis of cooperation you publicly pledged to engage with him ‘against anti-Semitism’? What a shame,” tweeted Serdar Kılıç.

Kılıç was referring to a video clip of Gülen in which he slams Jews, saying that “polytheists are closer to us than the Jews.”

On Saturday, the permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations also condemned the meeting between Kanter and Erdan.

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