Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Mexico for two days to “enhance bilateral” ties. The Muslim president used his public appearance in the Mexican capital to send a message to the United States government, however, and to attack President Barack Obama.
At the National Palace in Mexico City, Erdogan criticized Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Secretary of State John Kerry over the silence on the murders of three Muslims in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
“If you stay silent when faced with an incident like this, and don’t make a statement, the world will stay silent towards you,” he said.
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, shot and killed Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan, 19, allegedly over a parking spot about two miles from the University of North Carolina campus. Left-wing pundits immediately called it a hate crime since the three were Muslim, but some evidence suggests otherwise. The White House said it will release a statement once the police finish their investigation.
Erdogan is Muslim and often displays anti-Western sentiments, even though Turkey is a member of NATO. He recently hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and has developed a track record of publicly criticizing Israel. Abe Katsman at Breitbart London collected Erdogan’s anti-Israel comments since he was mayor of Istanbul in the late 1990s. In July, when he was prime minister, he said Israel was committing genocide against Israel against Gaza. A few days later, the Israel Tax Authority inspected a package from Turkey to Gaza and found ball bearings – material that could be used in bombs or other explosives – inside a chocolate mixer.
In November, Erdogan claimed Muslims founded America, “adding that Christopher Columbus mentioned seeing a mosque on top of a hill in Cuba in his memoirs.” The president also blamed the massacre at the headquarters of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, France, in January on the West instead of the radical Muslims who slaughtered twelve innocent people in cold blood.
“The West’s hypocrisy is obvious,” he said. “As Muslims, we’ve never taken part in terrorist massacres. Behind these lie racism, hate speech and Islamophobia. Please, the administrations in those countries where our mosques are attacked need to take measures. Games are being played with the Islamic world, we need to be aware of this. French citizens carry out such a massacre, and Muslims pay the price. That’s very meaningful… Doesn’t their intelligence organisation track those who leave prison?”
On his trip back from Mexico, Erdogan’s presidential plane stopped at Houston’s George Bush International Airport on February 13. It stayed for three hours to refuel even though “the range of the presidential plane is enough to fly from Mexico to Turkey non-stop.” He met with Turkey’s Washington Ambassador Serdar Kiliç, who flew in late February 12.
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