Erdogans comments on Zionism clouds US secretary of states Turkey visit.

By bne IntelliNews March 4, 2013
US secretary of state John Kerry was in Ankara on Friday for talks with the Turkish leaders, including PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, focused on the crisis in Syria, bilateral trade and Irans nuclear programme. However, PM Recep Tayyip Erdogans earlier comments on Zionism clouded Kerrys visit. In a speech he delivered in Austria at a UN meeting last week, PM Erdogan likened Zionism to fascism and anti-Semitism and he branded Zionism as a crime against humanity. Kerry said in a joint press conference in Ankara with the Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu that obviously the US not only disagreed with it (referring to Erdogans comments on Zionism), but the US found it objectionable. It is essential that both Turkey and Israel find a way to take steps in order to bring about or to rekindle their historic cooperation, but obviously we have to get beyond the kind of rhetoric that we have just seen recently, Kerry added

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