Turkey urges U.N. Security Council to meet on Egypt

8/15/2013

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan today accused the West of ignoring bloodshed in Egypt and called on the United Nations Security Council to meet urgently to discuss the situation in the country where hundreds of people were reported killed.

In a televised statement before departing for a visit to Turkmenistan, Erdogan also said Egypt’s leaders should stand a “fair and transparent” trial for what he called a “massacre” that unfolded live on televisions as police smashed two protest camps of supporters of the deposed Islamist president.

He again called for the release from custody of ousted President Mohammed Morsi and other members of his government and said Egypt’s current leaders should follow the example of Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, who resigned as Egypt’s interim vice president in protest of the violence.

Erdogan, who leads an Islamic-based party, had strongly backed Morsi as an example for the Arab world of a democratically elected, pro-Islamic leader. He has frequently accused the West for tacitly supporting Morsi’s ouster and failing to call the July 3 military intervention that deposed him “a coup.”

“Those who ignore the coup and don’t even display the honorable behavior of calling a ‘coup’ a ‘coup,’ share in the guilt of the massacre of those children,” Erdogan said. “Anyone or any international organization that remains silent and takes no action has the blood of those innocent children on their hands, just like those who carried out the coup.”

The Obama administration has avoided calling Morsi’s ouster a “coup” lest that trigger U.S. law which would bar aid to Egypt’s new military government.

The Turkish leader also spoke of a “conspiracy” against the Islamic world, suggesting there were efforts to prevent Islamic governments from taking office.

“You have ignored (the Palestinian territories), you have ignored Syria and still do,” Erdogan said. “At this stage what right do you have to speak of democracy, of universal values, of human rights and freedoms?”