Turkish Pres. slams bias in Western media against Palestinians

16/12/2017

ANKARA-- Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday accused the Western media of winking at the atrocities being committed by the Israeli forces against the Palestinian protesters.

There is no justification for the Western media to ignore the inhuman treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli soldiers, he said, citing the last week incident of the soldiers dragging away a Palestinian boy blindfold in the West Bank city of Al-Khalil, or Hebron.

The unarmed boy, identified as Fawz Al-Juneidi, 16 years, alongside with dozens of Palestinian youths were protesting against the US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

They were peacefully defending the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to restore the occupied holy city, Erdogan said at the sixth Ordinary Provincial Congress of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party in Yalova city, northwest Turkey.

If the scenes of the Israeli maltreatment of Palestinians took place elsewhere, they would be spotlighted in the Western media for months, he pointed out.

The Turkish leader called on the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibility for maintaining the legal status quo of Jerusalem in the wake of the US move.

He noted that his country would continue working with the competent bodies for adopting the necessary measures against Trump's decision as per the provisions of the international laws.

The US move constitutes an award for the state of terrorism and a stigma attached to all humanity, he stressed.

On a similar note, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey's consul in Jerusalem actually acts as Turkish ambassador to Palestine state.

He was referring to the decision of the last week meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul to recognize East Jerusalem as capital of Palestine.

"There is no country besides Turkey which has opened a mission for Palestine at the embassy level," AA quoted Yildirim as saying at the AK Party's Ordinary Provincial Congress in the northeastern city of Artvin.

"It's clear. Whether Israel accepts this or not, this reality will not change, our decision will not change," Yildirim added.

"We have supported Palestine and Jerusalem on all international platforms and we will continue to do so," he added.

Trump's decision on December 6 to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital sparked angry demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territories and many Muslim countries.