ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to convene an emergency summit to discuss the war in Gaza and what he called Israel’s attacks on Jerusalem.
Erdogan, who has been a vocal critic of Israel during its war against the Hamas militant group in Gaza, called on Islamic countries at the weekend to form an alliance against what he described as Israel’s “expansionism”.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting in Ankara, Erdogan said Israel was targeting the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem as part of its “expansionist” drive. Jerusalem and the mosque – known to Jews as Temple Mount – was Ankara’s “red line”, he added.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has 57 member states and claims to be the collective voice of the Muslim world.
“It is unthinkable for the OIC, whose duty is to take care of the Jerusalem cause, to remain indifferent to these attacks. It is urgent that the organisation convenes at the leadership level without losing more time,” Erdogan said.
He added that Turkey would apply to the International Court of Justice in The Hague over Israel’s killing of a Turkish-American woman, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, at a protest in the West Bank last week.
“We will take every legal step for her blood not to remain on the ground,” Erdogan said.
“The genocide-committing Israeli leadership will absolutely be held accountable for the crimes it has committed,” he added.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Christina Fincher)
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