AFP (Link) (January 30, 2009)
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stood firm Friday on his outburst at a heated debate with Israel's president, as the Jewish state sought to calm tempers saying bilateral ties would recover.
Erdogan received a hero's welcome on his return to Istanbul and the Palestinian Hamas movement hailed his "courageous stand" after storming out of the debate on the Gaza war at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"We will never allow anyone to show disrespect to the prime minister of Turkey," Erdogan told a cheering crowd as he returned home following his clash with Israeli President Shimon Peres.
He slammed the hundreds of civilian deaths in Hamas-ruled Gaza during Israel's recent 22-day offensive, but said his anger was directed not at the Jewish people, rather "the practices of the Israeli government. "The death of civilians cannot be seen as a simple work accident," Erdogan said.
In Ankara, Israeli ambassador Gaby Levy sought to defuse tensions, saying he is confident relations between the two "closest and... friendliest countries" will recover "within a period of time."
Turkey and Israel have overcome other spats in the past because their ties "are solidly based... on strategic interests," Levy told reporters.
"It is in the interest of both countries to start trying to calm down and move forward," he said.
The influential Turkish army, which has a series of cooperation accords with the Israeli military, stressed "national interests" in signalling that close relations would continue.
Erdogan said Turkey is determined to pursue peace efforts in the Middle East, while officials announced that Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas will visit Ankara next week to discuss "all aspects of the Palestinian problem, including efforts to secure unity among Palestinian groups."
Before he marched off the stage in front of Peres and UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Erdogan said Israel committed "barbarian" acts in Gaza, lashed out at the audience for applauding Peres' emotional defence of the war and vowed he would never return to Davos.
Erdogan's gesture made headlines across Europe and the Middle East, although a spokesman said his move was directed not at Peres but at the moderator of the debate, who interrupted his speech.
Turkey is one of Israel's rare allies in the Muslim world but Erdogan has been a fierce critic of the Jewish state's military onslaught on Gaza that left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead.
Peres, a Nobel peace prize winner, defended the offensive, saying Israel had no other choice to stop Hamas rocket attacks -- adding, with his finger pointing, that Erdogan would have done the same if rockets fell on Istanbul every night.
"Hamas pays tribute to the courageous stand of Turkey's prime minister... who in Davos directly defended the victims of the criminal Zionist war against our children and women in Gaza," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said Friday.
"We consider his departure from the room an expression of support for the victims of the Holocaust carried out by the Zionists," he said in a statement.
Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya also showered Erdogan with praise and compared him to Sultan Mehmed II who conquered Constantinople in 1453, bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire.
"From Gaza the victorious, we stand at your side and alongside Turkey," he said. "You remind us of the glorious position of our Ottoman ancestors," Hayya told a rally in Gaza City, during his first public appearance since the end of Israel's offensive on Gaza.
"Yesterday, you rose up in the esteem of all free (persons) in this world," wrote Lebanon's parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri in a letter to Erdogan, cited by the country's official news agency ANI.
Despite the hero's welcome from his supporters, the Turkish opposition and foreign policy experts harshly criticised Erdogan's outburst.
"Mr Erdogan has ruined Turkey's international prestige. Supporting the Palestinian cause is one thing, but supporting Hamas is something else," said Onur Oymen, deputy chairman of the main opposition CHP party.
"Mr Erdogan acted like a spokesman for an organisation that is classified as terrorist," he said.
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