ANKARA (PIC)– Turkish premier Recep Erdogan has urged Israel to immediately release all kidnapped Palestinian ministers and MPs because such a step would help find “peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis”.
Erdogan’s demand came during Israeli premier Ehud Olmert’s official visit to Ankara which was concluded on Friday a Turkish MP revealed.
The head of the Turkish-Palestinian Inter-parliamentary Friendship Group Huseyin Tanriverdi told Al-Jazeera.net website that Israel’s arrest of more than 40 Palestinian lawmakers and ministers including the parliament speaker was in violation of international laws and norms.
The Turkish MP said that those deputies were elected by the Palestinian people and enjoyed parliamentary immunity. He expressed surprise at the silence of Arab Islamic and world parliaments towards such a flagrant Israeli arrest of elected parliamentarians.
He urged the union of OIC parliaments to launch an international campaign to demand the release of the kidnapped Palestinian legislators.
In a related development the Aqsa Foundation catering for Islamic shrines in Palestine warned the Turkish government in a message to Erdogan against falling in an Israeli trap and legitimizing the Israeli excavations at the Aqsa Mosque.
The message asked the Turkish government to coordinate the visit of its team of experts to occupied Jerusalem with the Islamic Awkaf and the Aqsa Foundation and to persist in rejecting continuation of the Israeli diggings.
The message also asked for a meeting between the Foundation and the Turkish ambassador in Tel Aviv to discuss details of the team’s visit.
