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Erdogan verlaat World Economic Forum


Premier Erdogan aan het woord Foto: Fatih Alev

Wat een held die Erdogan. Eindelijk iemand die met woorden EN daden laat weten niet blij te zijn met het onproportionele en onacceptabele aantal doden in Palestina. En wel tijdens het jaarlijkse World Economic Forum in Davos, nota bene bekend om het rustige karakter ervan. Nadat Erdogan niet voldoende ruimte krijgt om te reageren op Perez’s monoloog, verlaat hij het podium. Zie de beelden van de laatste minuten, bekijk de complete sessie en lees hieronder verder voor een exclusief verslag van een aanwezige op rij drie.

Being among the audience in Davos, I want to share with you the background of today’s incident where Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left a debate with Shimon Perez in anger.

In my understanding Erdogan was angered due to three circumstances: Before he was cut off by the moderator Erdogan said that he couldn’t understand how so many people in the hall could applaud the killing of 1200 people (with a reference to the friends of Israel in the hall who gave Perez a long applause after his speech). So the applause was probably one important factor. The second factor is the almost hysterical speech that Perez delivered. He shouted out at least 5-7 times. When Erdogan finally was allowed to speak (after having insisted for about 20 seconds, see the third factor below), he said that Perez was shouting because he has the psycology of the guilty. And he said that he (Erdogan) would not resort to that kind of tactics in order to make a point.

And the third factor is that the moderator tried to close the debate immediately after Perez’s speech where he made a lot of contra-attacks towards Erdogan. During Perez’ speech Erdogan took a lot of notes and now he was not being given the chance to respond at least one time (it should be noted that Perez had the time to respond to Erdogan’s accusations, whereas Erdogan was not given the same opportunity). Erdogan got one minute, he used this time and was stopped again, but he insisted to be able to complete what he had to say. The moderator Davis Ignatius from Washington Post continuously interrupted Erdogan whereafter Erdogan "thanked" Ignatius and said "Davos bundan sonra benim icin bitmistir" meaning "After this Davos is a closed chapter for me".

He stood up and walked towards the exit, but was met by a very excited Amr Moussa who with an extraordinary respect shook hands with Erdogan. I was sitting in the third row and many Arabs among the audience stood up and applauded Erdogan (the Turks were in shock so they were sitting and trying to understand what had just happened).

I witnessed Erdogan and his close advisors about 20 minutes after the meeting ended, sitting in the hall, formulating a press release. It was obvious that what had happened was a seriuos matter to him and his team. He was clearly affected. Although I am sorry that Turkeys negotiation position probably will be weaker after this move, on the other side I am happy that he was conveying the feelings of many people. May Allah (swt) reward him for speaking the truth.

As a last note I have to mention, that Perez in his speech complimented Hosni Mubarak and Mahmoud Abbas and said that these two "leaders" were on the side of Israel against Hamas. He said this to criticize Erdogan for being biased in favour of Hamas. Perez’s point clearly shows why Erdogans popularity has increased among Palestinians and other Arab populations.

Fatih Alev (Denmark)

De oprichter. Geboren, getogen en woonachtig in die mooie stad achter de duinen. Altijd klaar voor een revolutie of gewoon een kopje thee. Typisch Faisal...

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