Friday, January 30, 2009

A Hero's Welcome



The BBC has a report on the Turkish prime minister's return to Turkey from Davos, where he stormed out of a panel discussion about the situation in Gaza. Waiting for Erdogan at the airport in Istanbul was a crowd of thousands, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags. Some were holding signs saying, "Welcome, World Leader."

From the BBC's report:
"In Davos, all the world witnessed what has not been happening for many years," said Istanbul resident Mustafa Mastar.
"This showed the power of Turks. It showed that Turks are standing on their feet in Europe, in the world."
"Tonight I was really proud. I feel really happy," said Mustafa Sahin, another person in the crowd.
(Photo -- Crowds in Istanbul greeting PM Erdogan upon his return from Davos. By AFP.)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It was self-indulgent of PM Erdogan to make those comments - I'm sure it felt good though, and he had one eye on upcoming elections, too. He may be a "hero" now, but it sure didn't take any courage to indulge in this sort of silliness. Doesn't Turkey sell military hardware to Israel which helps Israel "kill so well"?

It will, also, be interesting to see if AIPAC continues to lobby on Turkey's behalf against passing the Armenian genocide resolution in the US Congress when it comes up again next April.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Turkey is buying some Heron drones from Israel, to circumvent buying them directly from the U.S., due to the Americans still 'thinking' about the potential sale....