Turkish Prime Minister confronts Shimon Peres at Davos

Unlikely hero of the hour

There may be many things about the Turkish Prime Minister that people find objectionable but his challenge to Peres at Davos yesterday is surely not one of them. When he was prevented from being given equal time to Peres, he left the conference completely and has returned to an appreciative welcome in Turkey where feelings are running very high about the slaughter in Gaza.

A transcript of the moment in the debate leading up to his departure has been posted on UKurnet:

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m51382&hd=&size=1&l=e

During his address he referred to the jazz musician Gilad Atzmon, a self described Palestinian ex Zionist originally from Israel, who is probably one of the most controversial and bravest of those confronting the role of Judaism in the treatment of Palestinians. This is his 'politiks' page below - a treasure trove of interesting writing - and debates with others on the anti war left. Atzmon has upset many secular Jewish people who oppose Israel's actions in Palestine - and one Indymedia collective has been directly involved - and criticised heavily - for refusing to delete some of his posts:

http://www.gilad.co.uk/politiks.htm

Back to Erdogan, though. Naturally most reports of his departure have been as muted as possible though invariably described as 'storming off'. Actually, he simply stood up and calmly left. There was no 'storming' involved.

Al Jazeera English have a better report of the incident than most - though the 'storming' virus got into their reportage as well:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/01/200913....html