Report: Turkish PM Erdogan says 'Palestine today is an open-air prison'

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Fresh off his public spat with President Shimon Peres in Davos, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues to make waves in the murky waters of Middle East diplomacy, slamming Israel's policy of boycotting Hamas in Gaza.

Jerusalem has effectively turned the coastal area into "an open-air prison," Erdogan said in an interview with the Washington Post.

In remarks reported by the Post on Saturday, the Turkish premier said Israel and Syria were "very close" to initiating direct peace talks just days before the start of the Israel Defense Forces offensive in the Gaza Strip. Erdogan also revealed that it was he who arranged a secret meeting in Istanbul two years ago between the foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan, the nuclear-armed Muslim country which does not have diplomatic ties with Jerusalem.

According to the prime minister, Turkey was awaiting a reply from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert regarding Israel's position on peace talks with Syria, which had been mediated by Ankara. On the night of December 23, Erdogan said Israel and Syria were "very close" to moving to direct peace talks on the future of the Golan Heights.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060310.html

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1. Erdogan blames world for not "giving Hamas a chance"

Washington - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in an exclusive interview Saturday in the Washington Post, blamed the policy of isolating the radical Islamst movement Hamas as a reason for the ongoing tensions in the Gaza Strip.

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'First of all, Hamas is not an arm of Iran. Hamas entered the elections as a political party. If the whole world had given them the chance of becoming a political player, maybe they would not be in a situation like this after the elections that they won,' he said.

Erdogan went on to charge that 'the world has not respected the political will of the Palestinian people. (They say) on the one hand, we defend democracy and we try our best to keep democracy in the Middle East, but on the other hand we do not respect the outcome of ... the ballot box.'

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1456850.php/Erdogan_blames_world_for_not_%26quotgiving_Hamas_a_chance%26quot_