Turkey's Erdogan: Sudan's Darfur Policy Less "Criminal" Than Israel in Gaza

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On Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered support to Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir and attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Amidst harsh criticisms of Bashir's possible arrival in Istanbul for the summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference this week --- it was later confirmed that he would not attend --- Erdogan said he did not believe that the Sudanese President was guilty of the crimes for which he was indicted by the International Criminal Court. However, Sudanese officials have already confirmed that Bashir will not come to Istanbul.

Then, Erdogan compared the Israeli offensive in Gaza and the continuing drama in Darfur. He said, "It is not possible for those who belong to the Muslim faith to carry out genocide....If there were such a thing in Darfur, we would be chasing this to the end." He added that he "cannot discuss this [allegation for war crimes] with Netanyahu but I can easily discuss such issues with Omar al-Bashir". Erdogan stated that Israel had committed greater crimes against Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad offered a caution to Erdogan earlier Sunday. He said that Turkey should maintain good relations with Israel so it could mediate Damascus-Jerusalem peace negotiations. Assad's statement is a likely reaction to the assertion of Netanyahu that "Turkey cannot be a honest broker anymore" and suggestions that countries such as Croatia and Italy could step in as a mediator.

In the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, Yitzhak Laor offers a provocative and supportive argument of Erdogan's position vis-a-vis Israel, stating that Israel's apartheid is worse than South Africa's. Settlements and policies of discrimination in Israel. backed by Washington, are creating a worse atmosphere for Palestinians than the past in South Africa, where black people could at least make a living.

Comments

[Norman]

And Turkish are expert in the subject of genocide. Perhaps, 300.000 death in darfour is not so important because they are not arab and they are "negroes". Don't you know, they were "historically" only slaves.
So sad

[Bill Davit]

Typical Islamist "brotherly love" despite the fact the other is a killer. Sort of reminds me of the friend of the Fort Hood killer stating "He's my brother in the end. I will never condemn him." On a sad note I worked with a Darfur relief agency and met a former slave and he told me "if only we could get the Jews involved then someone would pay attention." Simple but profound statement of the selective outrage endemic across the Islamic world. I guess we are starting to see the decline of a secular Turkey that now bases the bulk of it's decision from an Islamic stanpoint. Hopefully the EU will wakeup and realize Turkey has no place being in the EU taking into account their embrace of a killer.

Quite a morbid statement when he states “It is not possible for those who belong to the Muslim faith to carry out genocide….If there were such a thing in Darfur, we would be chasing this to the end.” Gee I wonder what the 3 million Hindus who vanished in East Pakistan, the 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey liquidated, the two Copitc villages cleansed of all Christians in 1999 and 2000, or the the 2 million in Darfur dead since the early 90's would say about this! Its all about the "genocide" in Gaza in which they incidentally have one of the fastest growing populations in the world. Just like slavery the leaders in the Islamic world will never own up to any of this because it strips of them of the victim status. Its all about Islamophobia, the war on Islam, and those 13 million "evil jooos" bent on world domination! For some perspective of this double standard go compare the OIC report on Islamophobia to human rights in any number of Islamic countries. Hint in the west it will be harassment with a large financial settlement vs. death, church burned to the ground, and state laws sanctioning discrimination of non Muslims. When is the Islamic world going to realize we don't limit their dawa, building mosques, or open displays of faith but all are prohibitions for non Muslims in the majority of Islamic states. why?

[Dave]

Quoting --- "Then, Erdogan compared the Israeli offensive in Gaza and the continuing drama in Darfur. He said, “It is not possible for those who belong to the Muslim faith to carry out genocide….If there were such a thing in Darfur, we would be chasing this to the end.” He added that he “cannot discuss this [allegation for war crimes] with Netanyahu but I can easily discuss such issues with Omar al-Bashir”. Erdogan stated that Israel had committed greater crimes against Palestinians."

***********

Riiiiight......

This has been one of Africa's bloodiest wars, with more than a million deaths. And these actrocities have been committed by the Sudanese Muslims against the non-Muslim peoples (Christians and Animists). And Sudan is one of the few places on the planet that still avowedly practices slavery -- lighter skinned Arabic Muslim SLAVE OWNERS (Erdogan's co-religionists), and black Christian and Animist SLAVES.

[Green]

Maybe you think Turkish are expert in genocide but Europeans are master in genocide. Remember local american indians, New Zealand and Australia local aborigines, Afqanstan, Irak, whole africa....

[Bill Davit]

Green,

Valid points and Iraq is a prime example of the human cost of that evil adventure called a war. My point was not to compare but to point out the rampant hypocrisy of the Islamist leaders of the world. To define Islamists I don't mean Muslims but those who use Islam to bring about their mythological utopia called a Caliphate. The coup leaders in Iran are Islamists. Islamists plain and simple value the system more than the people. It is why they can so callously ignore the 2 million deaths in Darfur yet claim genocide in Gaza of which only 50,000 total people have died since 1948. The 2 million in Sudan were only from the early 90's.

On your point about the American Indians I would like to point out a few things.

1) I am part cherokee(albeit a very small part) and I accept they their land was stolen.
2) People like Ward Churchill will claim 12 million died in the US or I have heard any number of Islamists state 70 million indians died in both North and South America. The problem is that the high estimate for all Indians in all of the americas was 50 million with only 5 to 18 million in the US.
3) The claim for genocide is false because the fact is that 70 to 90% of all indians died from new diseases introduced during colonial times. These native people were isolated by the sea from any diseases in Europe and thus their immune systems were not able to cope with the diseases like smallpox.
4) Look up these sites: http://hnn.us/articles/7302.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States#European_explorations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_history_of_American_indigenous_peoples

No doubt colonizations was wrong but if the US government was bent on genocide why did they bother to administer smallpox vacinations for the Indians in 1832. Now contrast this with the expansion of Islam.

Today the home of Buddhism(Afghanistan) and Orthodox Christianity(Turkey) are now 99.9% Islamic. Like colonialists of the Americas the arabs planned to stay and Islamasize the culture. If you read any history pf the conquests of Persia and India you will find the death tolls in the tens of millions on the low side with the high side being close to a 100 million. Least of lets not forget that Zoroastrians and Hindus were to at first given the status of Dhimmi but regarded as Pagan. Thus when conqured they were given two choices convert or die. A third option was not a choice but was the tens of millions enslaved. Read up on any number of battles chronicled in any number of Hadith and other scripture and you will find astonishing numbers of the dead and enslaved. Two interesting facts many are not aware of is that the whole concept of "Crusades" was directly adopted from Islam and the walls around the vatican were built to keep out Muslim invaders.

From a Moral standpoint the West owned up to colonization and slavery. It will never be enough for those who suffered but at least we recognized it and try to atone for it. A recent example is the $5 billion Italy agreed to pay Libya for colonial transgressions. In the US we have affirmative action for African Americans and Native Americans. In addition all the territory colonized in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia was given back. Islam on the other hand never gave back anything without a fight and spain is a prime example. Turkey still does not recognise the Armenian genocide nor the tens of millions the Ottamans forced into slavery from Eastern Europe. The Islamic world never apologized for its slavery(likely because it is legal under Sharia) or ended it until forced to by the West in 1960. Inronically the first wave of colonization that started in Algeria was done largely to end the slave trade in that area!

This begs the question of why the Islamists never atone for their previous transgressions. When the ICC charged Bashir Laranjani's response was "it was an attack Islam." Is this guy along with a number of other Islamists blind to what is happening in Darfur? From a Non Muslim standpoint I fully accept the evils of the West but why is it that many of the leaders of Islamic world remain silent on issues like Darfur and even the treatment of their religious minorities? Sort of reminds of me of the coup leaders in Iran who ignore the rapes and killings after the election. Why? Why?

Thx
Bill

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