MEDIA RELEASE
Turkey's Erdogan to UN Conference:
"Zionism is Crime Against Humanity"
Ban Ki-moon Stayed Silent, Must Speak Out
Contact: media1@unwatch.org
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan (podium, right) and Ban Ki-moon (seated second from left)
GENEVA, Feb. 28 – UN Watch expressed shock over anti-Jewish remarks delivered by Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan at a UN summit
for tolerance, and urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon -- who was present on the stage yet stayed silent -- to speak out and
condemn the speech. The Geneva-based human rights group also called on Erdogan to apologize.
Speaking yesterday before a Vienna forum of the Alliance of Civilizations, a UN framework for West-Islam dialogue, Erodgan called Zionism, the movement founded
in 1897 for Jewish self-determination, a "crime against humanity," likening it with anti-Semitism, fascism, and
Islamophobia. Click here for video (minute 8:00 to 8:30); click here for Turkish news report.
"We remind secretary-general Ban Ki-moon that his predecessor Kofi Annan recognized that the UN's 1975 Zionism-is-racism resolution was an expression of anti-Semitism, and he welcomed its repeal."
UN Watch urged all members of the Alliance's High Level Group, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, "to denounce remarks that fundamentally contradict the very purpose of a forum
supposedly dedicated to mutual tolerance."
"Erdogan's misuse of this global podium to incite hatred, and his resort to Ahmandinejad-style pronouncements appealing
to the lowest common denominator in the Muslim world, will only strengthen the belief that his government is hewing to a
confrontational stance, and fundamentally unwilling to end its four-year-old feud with Israel."
UN Watch is a Geneva-based human rights organization founded in 1993 to monitor UN compliance with the principles of its
Charter. It is accredited as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and
Social Council (ECOSOC) and as an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information (DPI).
ENDS