Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Israel is behind the military coup that led to the ousting of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. He also claimed the Turkish government has evidence to prove this, Today’s Zaman reports.
With regards to his evidence, Erdoğan noted a French intellectual, without mentioning his name, who, according to Erdoğan, said at a 2011 meeting in France that the Muslim Brotherhood would never be in power even if elected because "democracy is not the ballot box." Erdoğan stressed the Jewish identity of the French intellectual.
"If we stay silent in the face of the coup in Egypt, we will not have the right to say something if they set the same trap for us in the future," said Erdoğan.
The Israeli Consulate in İstanbul released a statement on Tuesday, quoting Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor's comments on Erdoğan's remarks regarding Israel. Palmor reportedly said, "This is one of those statements that is well worth not commenting on."
Turkey has been one of the most vocal critics of the coup that toppled Morsi’s government.
