Turkish columnist: Erdogan won't say 'You Shall Not Kill' in Arabic

Hurriyet writer horrified by PM's silence on Itamar attack, asks 'what rank was 3-month 'soldier'?'

Ynet|Published: 03.17.11 , 09:19

While the world keeps silent on the terror attack in Itamar, a columnist for a popular Turkish paper chose to inveigh against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his neglect to condemn the murders of the five family members.

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In an article entitled 'You Shall Not Kill' in the Hurriyet daily, Burak Bekdil asks, "I am still curious about what rank the 3-month old Israeli 'soldier' held. Captain? Lieutenant colonel? Certainly too young to be a general."

Bekdil reminds his readers of a 2010 speech in which a hot-tempered Erdogan expressed harsh criticism of Israel, emphasizing the deteriorating relations between the two states.

"'These (people) even see babies in their cradles as a threat. They have killed babies in their mothers’ arms.' These people, naturally, were the Israelis," Bekdil writes.

"Mr. Erdoğan said in both Turkish and English: 'You shall not kill.' Then he showed his linguistic capabilities and went on: 'You still don’t get it? Then I shall speak to you in your own language: Lo tir’tsach!'"

In other speeches, Bekdil tells his readers, Erdogan has said that his rage over child killings has nothing to do with race or gender. "All the same, he has been mute since Saturday," the day in which the Fogels were brutally murdered, the columnist says.

Turkey did eventually publish a short statement of condemnation, a few days after the attack, but it came from the foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu.

"Most predictably, we have not heard Mr. Erdogan saying 'You shall not kill' in Arabic, and we probably never will. That’s hardly surprising since we have never heard Mr. Erdogan speaking 'indiscriminately' in the past against the killing of children and defenseless people in Itamar, or elsewhere in Israel," Bekdil says.