ISTANBUL // Turkey’s prime minister has accused Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu of “crimes against humanity”, and compared him to the gunmen who killed 17 people in Paris last week.
“Netanyahu has committed crimes against humanity, the same as those terrorists who carried out the Paris massacre,” Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkish television on Thursday.
He said Mr Netanyahu had looked alone among other world leaders at last weekend’s antiterror solidarity march in Paris after the attacks.
The comments came after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday blasted the Israeli prime minister for “daring” to attend the march.
The Turkish presidency said Mr Netanyahu had staged “a miserable political show” by trying to exploit the rally for his own political purposes.
“The Israeli government should abandon its aggressive and racist policies instead of attacking others under the pretext of anti-Semitism,” presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said.
Mr Netanyahu struck back on Wednesday, saying Mr Erdogan’s “shameful remarks must be repudiated by the international community”.
Also on Thursday, Turkish prosecutors opened an investigation into two commentators writing for the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, who illustrated their columns with a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
The prosecutors were investigating Ceyda Karan and Hikmet Cetinkaya on suspicion of “inciting public hatred and insulting religious values”, Anatolia news agency reported.
It came a day after Cumhuriyet published a special edition marking the first edition of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo since the attack on its offices that killed 12 people.
The four-page pull-out was translated into Turkish and included cartoons satirising Boko Haram and ISIL terrorists. But it did not include Charlie Hebdo’s front-page cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, which has angered Muslims worldwide.
Mr Davutoglo joined a growing voice of anger over the publication of that cartoon in Turkish media. He condemned it as an “open provocation”, warning that Turkey would not tolerate insults against the Prophet.
“Freedom of the press does not mean freedom to insult,” said Mr Davutoglu. “We do not allow any insult to the Prophet in this country.”
He said Mr Netanyahu’s “crimes against humanity” included the deadly 2010 Israeli assault on a Turkish aid vessel and last year’s onslaught on Hamas-controlled Gaza.
In 2010, Israeli commandos stormed the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in an aid flotilla bound for the besieged Gaza Strip.
Nine Turks died in the raid and another died in hospital this year after four years in a coma.
Nearly 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel’s offensive on Gaza last year.
Mr Davutoglu said Mr Netanyahu was “the head of a government which massacred children playing in the beaches in Gaza and destroyed thousands of houses”.
He said the Israeli government “made almost natural the killing of Palestinians at every opportunity” and “massacred our citizens by launching an operation against an aid ship in international waters”.
The Israeli government declined to comment on Mr Davutoglu’s latest remarks.
Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman condemned Mr Erdogan on Wednesday as a “anti-Semitic neighbourhood bully” and called on Europe to do more to fight against his outbursts.
“The silence of those European states in the face of the repeated outbursts against Israel by Erdogan contributes to the same murderous hatred of Jews in Europe,” Mr Lieberman said.
Mr Davutoglu said he “would not even bother to answer Lieberman”, adding Turkey had a proud record of hosting Jews dating back to the 15th century, when it gave sanctuary to those expelled from Spain.
Turkey’s relations with Israel, once a key partnership for the Jewish state, have steadily deteriorated under Mr Erdogan’s rule.
The fraying ties have exasperated the US, which is keen for key Nato member Turkey to have a close military relationship with Israel.
The Turkish president is known for his angry outbursts at the Jewish state, declaring in July that Israel had “surpassed Hitler in barbarism”.
In 2009, Mr Erdogan walked off the stage at the World Economic Forum after an angry exchange with Shimon Peres, the Israeli president at that time.
* Agence France-Presse
