Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Israel of outdoing Adolf Hitler by killing 14,000 children in Gaza.
Speaking to a meeting of his Justice and Development (AK) Party legislators in the Turkish parliament, Erdogan said that the Palestinian cause has given his life meaning, according to Anadolu news agency.
“As long as God grants me life, I will continue to defend the struggle of Palestine, and will be the voice of the oppressed Palestinian people,” the Turkish leader said.
“Israel has already outdone Hitler…We stood up and said Hamas is not a terrorist organization. It is a resistance group.”
He also compared the struggle of Hamas to the Turkish war of independence (1919-1922) and reminded the MPs that he had stood up for the Palestinian militant group at the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“When no one else would speak, we stood up and said: ‘Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but a resistance group.’ We presented maps at the UN showing how Israel has gradually occupied the lands of Palestine over the past 70 years,” he said.
Erdogan accused Israel of committing massacres in both Gaza and the West Bank that are “marks of shame in human history,” with “unconditional support” from the West.