ANKARA, Turkey — Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday waded into the controversy over comments by Turkey’s prime minister equating Zionism to a crime against humanity, rebuking the leader of the NATO ally by saying such remarks complicate efforts to find peace in the Middle East.
Kerry said the Obama administration found the statements by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan “objectionable,” and Kerry stressed the “urgent need to promote a spirit of tolerance, and that includes all of the public statements made by all leaders,” at a news conference in Ankara with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
“We not only disagree with it; we found it objectionable,” Kerry said. He added that he had raised the issue with Davutoglu “very directly,” and said he would do the same with Erdogan. The spat comes ahead of a trip to Israel and Jordan later this month by President Barack Obama, who wants to nudge the Israelis and Palestinians back to peace talks.
Davutoglu, however, gave no acknowledgment of the U.S. complaint and denied that any Turkish official had made hostile or offensive comments about Israel. Instead, he blamed Israel for acting in a hostile way toward Turkey. He repeatedly referred to the deaths of nine civilians at the hands of Israeli commandos aboard a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship in 2010.
“If Israel wants to hear positive statements from Turkey, it needs to review its attitude,” he said. “It needs to review its attitude toward us, and it needs to review its attitude toward the people in the region and especially the West Bank settlements issue.”
Asked for his reaction to Davutoglu’s remarks, Kerry replied that they demonstrated the difficulty of dealing with such a fraught and emotional situation.
Addressing the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations conference in Vienna this week, Erdogan complained of prejudices against Muslims. He said such prejudices should be considered a crime against humanity “just like Zionism, like anti-Semitism and like fascism.”
The White House rejected the comparison on Thursday, calling it “offensive and wrong.” A senior State Department official traveling with Kerry said comments such as Erdogan’s are “corrosive” to U.S.-Turkey relations and damaging to regional and international stability.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also sharply condemned the remark late Thursday, calling it a “dark and mendacious statement, the likes of which we thought had passed from the world.” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kimoon joined the critics, saying it was “unfortunate that such hurtful and divisive comments were uttered at a meeting being held under the theme of responsible leadership.”
Although he did not back down from the Erdogan remarks, Davutoglu did say that Turkey was a strong proponent of the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians and would do whatever it could to help achieve that.
Kerry said that despite the comments, he was hopeful Turkey and Israel could eventually find a way to restore their previously close relations.
The uproar has overshadowed Kerry’s visit to the Turkish capital, where he had hoped to spend much of his time discussing the crisis in neighboring Syria and coordinating plans with the Turks to assist the Syrian opposition, which is fighting to oust President Bashar Assad.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 03/02/2013