Trump's Jerusalem act an operation against Islamic world: Erdogan

Championing his administration as a "defender of the oppressed," Erdogan saluted Palestinian demonstrators.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - US President Donald Trump’s recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital was the sign of new "operations against the Islamic world," Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared on Friday.

Addressing crowds in Istanbul, Erdogan once again condemned Trump's controversial last week order to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the disputed ancient city of Jerusalem considered holy by adherents of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

"The Jerusalem decision is the signal of new operations against the Islamic world. If Muslims fail to react sufficiently within legal boundaries, the rest will come," the Turkish President predicted.

Championing his administration as a "defender of the oppressed," Erdogan saluted Palestinian demonstrators protesting the US and clashing with Israeli forces in the occupied East Jerusalem and other West Bank population centers.

"Just as there is no alternative to Mecca and Medina, there can be no alternative to Jerusalem. There is no giving up this city in our dictionary. Jerusalem is our honor, dignity and red line. Jerusalem is a test for every Muslim county, and slave [of Allah]," he said.

The Turkish President said that Turkey would take the matter to the UN Security Council to nullify the American move, adding no country was allowed to open an embassy in Jerusalem.

Erdogan's angry repeated reaction the whole week to the Jerusalem announcement led to a spat with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I’m not used to receiving lectures about morality from a leader who bombs Kurdish villages in his native Turkey,” Netanyahu said last Sunday during an official trip to Paris.

“[Erdogan] jails journalists, helps Iran go around international sanctions, helps terrorists—including in Gaza—who kill innocent people,” he added in his brief response.

Despite repeated diplomatic and rhetorical confrontations during much of Erdogan’s tenure, the two Mediterranean nations maintain decades-old robust commercial and military ties.

On Wednesday, the Turkish leader hosted in Istanbul heads of states and minister from around the Muslim-majority countries to take a stance against the US and Israel.

In his remarks to the extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) the Palestinian Authority's President, Mahmoud Abbas declared that his administration would no longer accept the US as a mediator in any future peace talks with Israel.

 

Editing by Sam A.