President Erdogan Accused Of Anti-Semitic, Turkey Calls To Save Jews During Holocaust

Presiden Turki Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru/The Presidential Press and Information Office)

JAKARTA - A spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish Foreign Ministry rejected a United States State Department statement accusing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of being anti-Semitic.

Ibrahim's spokesman said efforts to link the Turkish President to anti-semites were tragic.

"It is a tragic approach that the U.S. associates anti-Semitism with our President", Ibrahim Kalin said on Twitter, as quoted by Yenisafak on Thursday, May 20.

He said Turkey could not stay silent with Israel's brutality of forcibly expelling Palestinians, slaughtering civilians and babies, referring to President Erdogan's criticism of Israeli aggression.

"Our President's sensitivity to the Jewish Holocaust and the protection of the rights of the Jewish community in Turkey is clear. The biggest witness to this is representatives of the Jewish community and other minorities in Turkey", he added, re-uploading a tweet of the Turkish Jewish Community appreciating President Erdogan's support for them.

"Instead of responding to the President's justified stance with unfounded allegations, we invite the US to reconsider biased, wrong, and unfair attitudes toward the Palestinians", he said.

Earlier, the Turkish Foreign Ministry completely rejected a United States Foreign Ministry statement calling President Erdogan anti-Semitic. In its statement, rather than making false allegations against President Erdogan, it called on the US Government to make efforts to stop Israeli attacks.

"The concept of anti-Semitism should not be used to cover Israel's policy of ethnic, religious, and cultural cleansing. President Erdogan's comments do not target Jews, but the Israeli government, which has the blood of many innocent Palestinians, most of whom are children, women, and youth", the statement said.

The statement also underlined that Turkey became a Homeland for many Jews who fled the inquisition centuries ago and from the Holocaust during World War II.

The statement stressed Turkey helped rescue hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust and Jewish citizens

It underlines that turkey's intrepid diplomat diplomats also helped save hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust and Jewish citizens in Turkey have lived for centuries in peace and tranquility, without any discrimination.

Earlier, the US State Department on Tuesday condemned President Erdogan's recent anti-Semitic comments about Jews in a statement.

Meanwhile, President Erdogan, a vocal defender of Palestine, criticized Israel for carrying out airstrikes in Gaza. He called Israel a 'state of terror' after Israeli police fired rubber bullets at Palestinians throwing stones at Jerusalem.

In addition, President Erdogan criticized Western powers for their lack of response to violence between Israelis and Palestinians, calling Austria and the United States, which he said wrote history with bloody hands.

At least 227 Palestinians have been killed, including 64 children and 36 women, and another 1,620 have been injured in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since May 10, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Health Ministry.