Turkey's prime minister has stormed off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos after a heated debate on Gaza with Israel's terrorist president.
Mr Tayyip Erdogan clashed with terrorist Shimon Peres, whose voice had risen as he made an "impassioned" defence of Israel's war crimes, jabbing his finger.
Mr Erdogan said Shimon Peres had spoken so loudly to conceal his "guilt".
He accused the moderator of not allowing him to speak and said he did not think he would return to Davos.
The Turkish PM stressed later that he had left the debate not because of his disagreements with Peres but because he had been given much less time to speak than the Israeli leader.
In the debate, Mr Erdogan was cut off as he attempted to reply to Peres.
When the audience applauded Peres, Mr Erdogan said: "I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. You killed people. And I think that it is very wrong."
The moderator, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, had given him a minute to reply, then asked him to finish, saying that people needed to go to dinner.
"I do not think I will be coming back to Davos after this because you do not let me speak," Mr Erdogan shouted before marching off the stage in front of Peres, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mossa and an elite audience of ministers and international officials.
On his return from Davos, Turkish PM has received a hero's welcome in Istanbul and gave press conference.
Here are the selected highlights of the press conference:
- We started the session. I wrote down the minutes of the speech duration. Ban Ki-Moon was the person who used this time. Mr. Amr Moussa was warned by the moderator in his 12th or 13th minute and ended his speech at the 15th minute. My speech lasted 15 minutes.
- When it came to Mr. Peres. He spoke for 23 minutes without taking any notice or warning. During his speech he used a very surprising rhetoric and used insulting terms.
- His manner was unacceptable.
- I don't speak the same language with the retired diplomats. I come from politics not diplomacy. I have to protect the dignity of my people.
- I told them that I don't raise my voice but I have to answer some criticism.
- Whoever stands there, my people would have expected the same attitude. And when we asked the floor from the moderator to respond these words, he denied it.
- The issue is not personal. It is about my country's reputation and dignity. I cannot allow anybody to harm my country's dignity and honor.
AdsQUESTION: What will be the possible impacts of this incident on Turkish-Israeli relations?
ANSWER: When we get on the plane, I was informed that Mr. Peres called. I decided to hear it and we recorded it. During the speech, he said that he respects us and he is very sorry for this incident. Peres said they told me that they couldn't hear me that's way he raised my voice. We gave him the necessary responses and I will give the further details tomorrow. We do not make decisions or act in anger. Our criticism is not towards the Israeli people or Jews but towards the Israeli administration. The Israeli government misleads our criticism. I would like underline that the sole target of our criticism is the Israeli government.
QUESTION: Will you go to future Davos meetings?
ANSWER: No, I don't think so for now.
{ 7 comments }
BRAVO Erdogan, Le seul homme qui a eu le courage de dire la virété à l’une des figures du mal qui a tué des enfants des femmes…
Désormais Erdogan a gagné une place dans le coeur de chaque opprimé. Bravo encore
selamün aleyküm ey ihvan ı mübin.
ı am from turkey. we near the you
Peres lied and lied and lied, throughout his entire long-winded 25-minute speech, and the elite hypocrites sitting in the audience lapped it all up. If I had been in Erdogan’s place, it would have been all I could do to restrain myself. I thought Mossa from the Arab League did a good job, too, pointing out Israel’s constant foot-dragging on carrying out negotiated commitments, and their hypocritical surprise at how the Gazans reacted to Israel’s siege of Gaza over two years! I think Mossa was inspired by Erdogan’s frankness to get in a few good swipes at Israel. On the other hand, why didn’t the League DO something to restrain Israel during the attacks? Then there was the “moderator,” Issikoff, a Council on Foreign Relations shill, insisting that “We really have to break here so that people can have dinner.” Dinner? DINNER? So THAT’S what Davos is all about! Dinner and photo ops! Too bad they didn’t show some videos of desperate Gazans trying to keep their children from bleeding to death in their arms during the attacks! That would have given the “dinner guests” a little entertainment!!! No chance of that, though!
Erdogan, Shimon Peres and all the other rulers of the Muslim lands are nothing more than brothers… and like brothers they may argue but when it comes to actions they help each other out. For example, who trains the Israeli Airforce? Turkey! Who ships 50 million cubic meters of water every year to Israel? Turkey! Who allows Russian oil to pass through the Bosphorus straits to Israel? Turkey! So please don’t be fooled by Erdogan’s cheap words. All I see here are siblings arguing over a minor disagreement between them… this is not a real clash!
And just like brothers, they made up shortly afterwards on the phone (according to a World Economic Forum spokesman). If Erdogan is sincere then he should remember the only action befitting a Muslim ruler now is to call his army to remove the occupation of Israel – anything less is an insult to our mothers and sisters in Gaza!
(Btw I heard there’s elections in March 2009 in Turkey… I wonder if that had anything to do with it too… Erdogan is feeling the call from the Ummah for a sincere Islamic leadership and thinks his public sulking will secure his future).
I was hopping that Amr Mousa did the same or any of our leaders got the courouge and speake so loudly and take action but so sadly there is no more men in the arab world.
While Amr Mousa may have thrown in one or two good statements in his word, I fail to understand how he had the nerve to sit down again after shaking hands with Erdogan!!! The only logical thing to have done at that point was to walk out himself. Shame on the representatives of the Arab world.
Just as a note, Babs-M… Erdogan did not accept Peres’ phone apology, which was then followed by an official Israeli statement saying they ‘hope Israeli/Turkish relations would not be affected by the incident”. Turkey did not reply. Let’s give credit where credit is due, and be thankful to Erdogan for his powerful and unwavering stance since the beginning of these atrocities. Its much more than anyone else did.
@Babs-M: I guess you are very smart yourself. If you like Turkey and Erdogan to back Palestine by putting all its international ties on the table and put 70 million of its population in a loss in this economic environment, why can’t your arabic brothers from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and all other petrol rich brothers who are floating in gold/money and wealth, do the same thing? Saudis have billions of dollars walking around in United States. Las Vegas is built on top of arabic petrol and you are talking about several aggrements between Turkey and Israel where you guys do not buy any ‘made in Turkey’ products, while you guys still hate Turkey for not liking arabs although majority of arabs stabbed us in the back in WW1 and basically sold out the whole ‘ummah’ word, killed Ottoman Empire and let England, French and all other kuffar to run your countries.
I don’t want to throw any history on the table but just asking you to put yourself in a mindful state. If you want Turkey to take any action, you should stop the ‘arabic nationalism’ that you always keep saying on arabic TVs and in your communities and start supporting real Ummah understanding. If you want Turks again to lead the ummah, you should act like it, otherwise you can judge, blame and do any cricism you like, at the end of the day, it will be only a waste.
Wassalam