CAIRO (WJC)–If Israel were to violate Turkish airspace in order to conduct operations against Iran, Ankara’s reaction would resemble an “earthquake,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said in an interview with an Egyptian journalist.
Responding to a question about rumors that Israel had entered Turkey’s airspace for espionage purposes, Erdogan said that such a thing had not happened, but should it happen the consequences would be dire if it did. “[Israel] will receive a response equal to that of an earthquake,” he said, urging Israeli leaders to refrain from “using the relationship they have with us as a card to wage aggression on a third party.”
Ankara would not be a neutral party and stand aside with its arms folded, he said. Erdogan also alluded during the interview to last winter’s Gaza war, saying that Israel could not reasonably have expected to participate in a joint military drill with Turkey after “sweeping” the people of Gaza. He stressed that the Turkish government’s policy on Israel was both derived from and backed by the country’s voting public. “We cannot challenge the feelings of the Turkish people, who were greatly affected by what happened during the aggression on Gaza,” he said.
In a separate interview in the US, Erdogan said diplomacy rather than economic sanctions should be pursued to resolve the nuclear standoff with Iran. There “could be problems” if measures such as sanctions were taken against Iran without seeking a diplomatic solution, he said PBS’s ‘Charlie Rose’ show.
“We think that diplomacy is what we have to do – that’s what we have to do because I don’t think diplomacy has been exhausted yet. We believe that we can play a very important role between Iran and countries of the world.” Erdogan, who met with President Barack Obama two days ago, called Iran’s nuclear program “peaceful.”
*
Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress