Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Photo: AP
Ban apologizes to Erdogan over UN guard assault
UN Chief Ban Ki-moon extends personal apology to Turkish PM over his attack by UN Guard officer
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a personal apology on Saturday over his assault at the UN building.
Erdogan was assault by a man the Turkish media identified as a member of the UN Guard during Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
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Erdogan's bodyguards immediately stopped the man and Erdogan himself was unharmed.
"I'm afraid there was an unfortunate incident," the Turkish prime minister was quoted as saying by Ankara's daily newspaper Sabah. Erdogan did not elaborate on the incident, saying only that he was kept out of the General Assembly Hall during Abbas' speech by security guards.
The Turkish media underscored the fact that Ban offered his personal apology to Erdogan for the incident because his assailant was a UN Guard officer.
Minister of Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein, who witnessed the attack, described it as a "very violent incident. Like a scene out of a movie."
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