Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized Israel in a speech in Istanbul and called on more Muslims to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to show support for the Palestinians.
Today (Monday), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on more Muslims to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to show support for the Palestinians. At the opening ceremony of the International Forum on Al-Quds in Istanbul, he called Israel’s policies discriminatory and racist.
“As a Muslim community, we need to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque often,” Erdoğan said. “Each day that Jerusalem is under occupation is an insult to us.” He added that approximately 26 thousand Turkish tourists visited Jerusalem in 2015, more than any other Muslim country but much less than Americans, Russians and the French.
The Turkish President also discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and stated that peace in the region will not be possible without “an appropriate and just solution to the Palestinian problem.”
“The Israeli blockade on Gaza has no place in humanity,” Erdoğan added. “The only solution is the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and with the 1967 borders.”
He continued by warning the US from moving its embassy to Jerusalem.