After its assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and attacks on Lebanon, Israel has become a threat to its region and all of humanity, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Pope Francis in a phone call, Turkish diplomatic sources said Thursday.
He stressed the need to act immediately as “an alliance of humanity” for Muslims and Christians in Palestine to find peace, sources said.
Ankara has been outraged since Hamas chief Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Iranian capital Tehran early Wednesday, a day after attending President Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration. Erdoğan has strongly condemned the attack, calling it “perfidious” and stressing that it wouldn’t break Palestinians’ spirit.
Erdoğan also conveyed his criticism to the pope about what he called the “immoral” scenes at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
“Humanity’s honor was tramped upon under the guise of freedom of expression and tolerance,” he said.
“The challenging of religious values and spread of perverse propaganda in the Olympics is announcing a moral collapse,” Erdoğan reportedly told the pope. “This offends Muslims as much it has Christians.”
The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics came under fire for LGBT-Q propaganda, including a drag queen parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” painting, which features Jesus Christ and his apostles.
