Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country imposed a trade ban on Israel because it could no longer “stand by and watch” the violence in Gaza.
Turkey on Thursday announced that it had suspended all imports and exports to Israel over its military actions in Gaza. It said Friday that the ban would stay in place until a permanent cease-fire is achieved and the Israeli government allows all humanitarian aid to reach Gaza without hindrance.
“Up to now, Israel has killed 40,000 to 45,000 Palestinians without mercy. As Muslims, we could not stand by and watch,” Erdogan told reporters following traditional Friday prayers in Istanbul.
Erdogan said: “We had a trade volume that had reached 9.5 billion dollars between us. But we closed the door (to trade) as though this trade volume did not exist.”
The Turkish leader had faced intense pressure to stop trade ties with Israel and lost some votes in local elections in March to a small Islamist party that had been critical of Turkey’s continued commercial relations with Israel.
Erdogan again held the United States and other Western nations responsible for deaths in the Israel-Hamas war.
“The whole West and especially America, are working for Israel by mobilizing all resources and unfortunately the poor people of Palestine were sentenced to death through Israel’s bombings,” he said.
