FM pulls out of Munich conference due to Israeli rep
by Daily Sabah with Agencies
ISTANBULFeb 06, 2015 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah with Agencies
Feb 06, 2015 12:00 am
Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu has decided not to attend the 51st Munich Security Conference because of Israeli participation at a session on the Middle East.
Çavuşoğlu made the announcement at a press conference in Berlin Friday after participating in Turkey's West Europe Consul-Generals' meeting. The foreign minister planned to attend the conference, where around 20 heads of states, 60 foreign and defense ministers gathered.
"But, we have decided not to participate in the Munich Security Conference because they have subsequently invited Israeli representatives to the Middle East session," Çavuşoğlu said. He also said that relations between Turkey and Germany were not restricted to the conference. "This is not a reproach against Germany," the foreign minister stressed.
However, Foreign Ministry Under Secretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu will attend the conference, Foreign Ministry sources said. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pawlo Klimkin are among the participants of the conference, which will continue until Sunday.
At a joint press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last month in Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that the government has yet to decide whether representatives will attend the counter-terrorism summit on Feb. 18, called for by U.S. President Barack Obama. Erdoğan added that if an invitation was extended to Turkish officials, they would evaluate the summit's necessity, implying that he may not attend if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be present.
Erdoğan also slammed Netanyahu's attendance at the Unity Rally in Paris to commemorate Charlie Hebdo and its subsequent attacks' victims. Responding to a journalist's question about Netanyahu's attendance, which has been widely debated by various media outlets as an unwilling request by the French, Erdoğan replied, "With what nerve did he [Netanyahu] go there [to Paris]? I'm having trouble understanding this. You should first account for the murdered women and children [in Palestine]."
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