During his election
campaign for president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared Israel to
Hitler. The speech, a video of which is available on MEMRI TV, was posted on
the internet on August 3, 2014. The following excerpts from Erdogan's speech were
translated by MEMRI:
* * *
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: "100 years ago, we withdrew our
soldiers from Shuj'aiyya [in the Gaza Strip], but we never withdrew our hearts.
If half of our heart is in Istanbul, rest assured that the other half is still
in Gaza. Theodor Herzl sent an emissary to the great sovereign, Sultan
Abdulhamid. He offered great amounts of money and gold in return for land in
Palestine."
"Sultan Abdulhamid replied as follows: 'My two regiments,
coming from Palestine and Syria, lovingly gave their lives down to the last
soldier in the defense of Pleven. Not a single one remained alive. They all
fell lifeless to the ground. The Turkish Empire belongs to the people of
Turkey, not to me. I will not give away even the tiniest piece of it. Let the
Jews keep their millions… When the empire is split into pieces, maybe then they
can get Palestine without paying a penny. But only – and this is of utmost
importance – only our cadaver can be cut into pieces. As long as we are alive,
we will never agree for our body to be cut into pieces and divided up."
"Everything happened exactly as Sultan Abdulhamid said:
First they turned the Ottoman Empire into a cadaver and cut it into pieces, and
then a terrible atrocity began for Palestine and the Palestinians. Step by
step, inch by inch, they were driven out, killed, and oppressed. The
Palestinians were stripped of the ability to live in their land." . . .
"Now I am going to say something that will upset many
people in the world: Just like Hitler tried to create a pure Aryan race in
Germany, the State of Israel is pursuing the same goals right now.
"The Turkish-U.S. Friendship group [of the U.S.
Congress] sent me a letter. In their letter, they try to threaten me. They will
be getting their appropriate response from me, of course."
"But from here, let me also say the following: This is
really amazing. They kill the women so that they will not be able to give birth
to Palestinian babies. They kill the babies so that they will not be able to
grow up to be men. They kill the men so that they will not be able to defend
their homeland. They are even afraid of babies in cribs. They are even afraid
of children playing in parks or on beaches. They are even afraid of the wounded
or the wheelchair-ridden in hospitals."
"Rest assured that the more they kill, the more they
will be afraid. The more they shed blood, the more they will drown in the blood
that they shed. No cruelty lasts forever. The day is sure to come when they
will be held accountable for their atrocities. We impatiently await this day of
reckoning. We believe, from the bottom of our hearts, that laws will be
implemented and that justice will prevail. We know that these baby killers –
this Israel – will sooner or later be held accountable for all their deeds in
accordance with the law." . . .
Crowd: "Damn Israel! Down with Israel!
"Damn Israel! Down with Israel!
"Damn Israel! Down with Israel!
"Damn Israel! Down with Israel!
"Damn Israel! Down with Israel!"
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: "Brothers and sisters, Allah
willing, we shall continue to be on the side of justice. Peace, Gaza, and
Palestine – until our final breath."
* * *
Turkish
Prime Minister Erdogan Compares Israel to Hitler, Says: They Will Drown in The
Blood That They Shed,” MEMRI, September 16, 2014
Actually, the commander of the Turkish garrison of Pleven, Osman Pasha, and his garrison surrendered to the Romanian Colonel Cerchez (of the allied Russian and Romanian forces). 'Not a single one remained alive', indeed! Typical of Erdogan, though - rewriting history as usual...
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