Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan again framed the issue of sovereignty and control of Jerusalem as a religious issue, for which a religious battle must be waged.
Edited by: JV Staff
“No force or threat can dissuade our country from its activities to protect and defend the rights of Palestine and Jerusalem,” said Erdogan at a meeting with Turkish and Islamic organizations in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations’ General Assembly.
Erdogan emphasized that the issue of Jerusalem is not just about Muslims in Palestine, but “touching the dignity of 1.7 billion Muslims in the world.”
Erdogan has previously called on Muslims to march on Jerusalem.
In November 2016, he urged “all Muslims” to defend Jerusalem from Israel and stand for the Palestinian cause.
“It is the common duty of all Muslims to embrace the Palestinian cause and protect Jerusalem,” he declared.
In May 2017, Erdogan accused Israel of “racist and discriminatory” policies against the Palestinians and discussed the need to “protect Jerusalem against attempts of Judaization.”
Responding to the allegations, President Reuven Rivlin noted that the Jewish majority in Israel’s capital dates to the Ottoman period.
“We have heard voices which attack Israel for building Jewish life in Jerusalem. I must tell these people, for the last 150 years there has been a Jewish majority in Jerusalem. Even under the Ottoman Empire, there was a Jewish majority in Jerusalem,” he stated.
Rivlin added that “under Israeli sovereignty, we continue to build Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. There is no doubt Jerusalem is a microcosm of our ability to live together. And we will continue to ensure freedom of religion for all faiths.”
On Monday, Erdogan also met in New York with members of the vociferously anti-Zionist Neturei Karta organization in a meeting on the sidelines of the UNGA. On Erdogan’s official website it said “President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is in New York to attend the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, received members of the Jewish Anti-Zionist League.”
In 2018 the group of self-hating Jews met with Erdogan in London, just after calling Israel a “terror and apartheid state”.
President Trump said Monday that Turkey’s president has become “a friend” following negotiations to free an American pastor from Turkish custody, according to an Anadolu Agency news report.
Trump said his administration was “thrilled” to secure Andrew Brunson’s release following “a very short and respectful negotiation with a very strong man, and a man who has become a friend of mine fortunately, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.”
“I called the president and I said ‘he’s an innocent man.’ They’d been trying to get Andrew out for a long time,” Trump said, referring to the Obama administration during an event on religious freedom at the UN 74th General Assembly. “I don’t think they tried too hard unfortunately. But I want to thank President Erdogan, and I want to thank you pastor for being here with us today.”
Brunson, who was released in October after being charged in the Turkish province of Izmir with being a member of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), was among attendees at the U.S.-hosted session.
Speaking to religious freedom more generally, Trump called on nations to act on “this urgent moral duty.”
