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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said that he would be “glad” to return the Profile of Courage award given to him in 2004 by the American Jewish Congress, Turkey’s embassy in the US said on Tuesday, amid growing controversy over Erdogan’s remarks on Israel. It is not clear when and how the award will be returned.
The Turkish premier was given the award in recognition of past efforts to bring peace to the Middle East but now wants to return it after his verbal assaults on Israel – Erdogan had slammed Israeli attacks in Gaza as “genocide” of Palestinians and compared Israel’s actions to that of Hitler’s.
“Attempts to depict Prime Minister Erdogan’s legitimate criticisms of the Israeli government’s attacks on civilians as expressions of anti-Semitism are an obvious distortion”,Serdar Kilic, Turkey’s ambassador to Washington, wrote in a letter to Jack Rosen, President of the American Jewish Congress.
“Prime Minister Erdogan would be glad to return the award given back in 2004”, Kilic said, adding that he was instructed by Erdogen to pass the remarks.
Earlier, Rosen had denounced Erdogan as “arguably the most virulent anti-Israel leader in the world”.
Kilic also said that the “absence” of the award will not prevent Erdogan from working on a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and from protecting the Jewish community in Turkey. He also described attacks on his Prime Minister as “an effort to cover up the historic wrongdoings of the Israeli government”.
Erdogan has portrayed himself as an advocate of Palestinians and has, during the current crisis, made clear that he sees himself as the only Muslim leader standing up for them.
The war of words has ended any chance of Israel and Turkey normalizing their relations, following an Israeli assault on a Turkish ship carrying important aid to Gaza back in 2010 during which ten activists were killed assault. Erdogan had famously walked out in a debate with Israeli President Shimon Peres in 2009 at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, after which he received a hero’s welcome when he returned to Turkey.
