 Making friends and influencing people.
[Times of Israel] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday implied that Jerusalem belongs to Turkey, referring to the Ottoman Empire’s control over the city for much of the modern era.
| By that logic, Istanbul — and all of Turkey — belongs to Italy as the descendant of the Roman empire that built it, and Jerusalem belongs to the Jews, who took it from the Arabs by conquest after being granted it by democratic vote in the United Nations. The fact that Turkey cannot even defeat the Kurds suggests they would not fare well in an attempt to conquer Israel. What an idiot. |
"In this city that we had to leave in tears during the First World War, it is still possible to come across traces of the Ottoman resistance.
| A failed resistance, which is why the League of Nations took it away from the Turks, giving it to Britain to administer until the Jews were up to speed. |
So Jerusalem is our city, a city from us," he told Turkish lawmakers during a major policy speech in Ankara. "Our first qibla [direction of prayer in Islam] al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem are the symbolic mosques of our faith. In addition, this city is home to the holy places of Christianity and Judaism."
| What a whiney baby he is, to be sure. |
During a lengthy speech at the opening of the Turkish parliament’s new legislative session, Erdogan spent several minutes lamenting the fate of Jerusalem and the Palestinians’ plight.
"Another crisis that our country and our nation carefully follow is the oppression of Israel against the Palestinians and the indifferent practices that disregard the privacy of Jerusalem," he said toward the end of his address.
"The issue of Jerusalem is not an ordinary geopolitical problem for us.
| That and five bucks will get you coffee and a pastry at Starbucks. |
First of all, the current physical appearance of the Old City, which is the heart of Jerusalem, was built by Suleiman the Magnificent, with its walls, bazaar, and many buildings. Our ancestors showed their respect for centuries by keeping this city in high esteem."
| Some of it, anyway, added to and built over the work of the Christians, the Jews, and the Canaanites. And your ancestors are the reason the place needed so much work when the Jews took over. |
The Palestinian people have been living in Jerusalem "for thousands of years," but they were occupied and had their rights violated, the Turkish leader went on.
| This is an example of the “One, two, many” style of counting used by primitives who lack all knowledge of numbers higher than they can reach when they take off their shoes. |
|