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Turkey says Israel's Netanyahu attends Paris rally for "political" purpose

Xinhua, January 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Turkey on Thursday said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed up at Sunday's Paris rally was merely a "political" move.

The Israeli prime minister attended Paris solidarity march to support the victims on Sunday was an "abuse for his own political aims," said Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In a written statement, he said Netanyahu's harsh words against Erdogan are "a miserable struggle to cover up their crimes in the Gaza Strip in a shameful and hypocritical situation for humanity."

The spokesman blamed Netanyahu for making "a miserable political show in the face of the international community."

Turkey and Israel have been locked in a war of words recently over the Netanyahu's participation of the Paris rally following a wave of terrorist attacks that killed at least 12 people.

The Turkish President said on Monday he could "hardly understand how Netanyahu dared" to attend the Paris march.

Erdogan said Netanyahu should "give an account for the children, women you massacred" and accused him of leading "state terrorism" against the Palestinians.

In response, Netanyahu said that the Turkish president's "shameful remarks must be repudiated by the international community who want to carry on to fight against terrorism."

The Israeli leader made the remarks while meeting with visiting Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.

"He (Erdogan) said that Israel should not have been represented in the march in Paris, and the reasons he gave were the actions we took to defend ourselves against the thousands of rockets launched at our cities by Hamas terrorists," Netanyahu was quoted in a statement issued by his office Wednesday.

Turkey and Israel used to have close diplomatic ties, which suffered a serious blow in 2010 when Israeli commandos raided a ship trying to breach the maritime blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip. Nine Turkish nationals were killed in the raid.

Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador and recalled its envoy to Israel over the incident, while the two sides still maintain low-level diplomatic links. Enditem