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 Davutoglu said Israel's bombardments of Gaza and its storming in
2010 of a Turkish-led aid convoy headed there, in which 10 Turks
were killed, were on a par with the Paris attacks, whose dead
included shoppers at a Jewish supermarket.
The comments at a news conference escalated a war of words between
the former allies: Israel's far-right foreign minister, Avigdor
Lieberman, called President Tayyip Erdogan an "anti-Semitic bully"
on Wednesday for criticizing Netanyahu's attendance, with other
world leaders, at a Paris solidarity march for the attack victims on
Sunday.
Separately on Thursday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman
issued a statement saying it was Islamophobic and unacceptable for
Netanyahu to link the Paris bloodshed to Islam.
"The Israeli government must halt its aggressive and racist policies
instead of attacking others and sheltering behind anti-Semitism,"
spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on the presidential website.
Turkey condemned the Jan. 7 attack on the French satirical weekly
Charlie Hebdo, in which Islamist gunmen killed 12 people, but has
also warned that rising Islamophobia in Europe risks inflaming
unrest by Muslims.
Davutoglu also attended the Paris memorial rally, which he said was
a march against terrorism.
"Just as the massacre in Paris committed by terrorists is a crime
against humanity, Netanyahu, as the head of the government that
kills children playing on the beach with the bombardment of Gaza,
destroys thousands of homes ... and that massacred our citizens on
an aid ship in international waters, has committed crimes against
humanity," the Turkish premier said.
RUPTURED RELATIONS
The assault on the aid convoy ruptured relations between Turkey and
Israel, which previously enjoyed close diplomatic and military ties.
Trade links remain close.
Israel fought a 50-day war with the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip
last year, with Israeli shelling and air strikes causing widespread
devastation in the tiny territory and Hamas firing hundreds of
rockets into Israel. More than 2,100 Palestinians died, mostly
civilians, Gaza medical officials said, while the Israeli death toll
was 73, mostly soldiers.
"If Israel is looking for a bully, it needs to look in the mirror,"
said Davutoglu, whose Islamist-rooted AK Party has held power in
Turkey for over a decade.
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Tensions are running high in Turkey over the Charlie Hebdo's
cartoons mocking Islam, the reason cited for the shooting attack on
the weekly in a claim of responsibility by al Qaeda in Yemen.
Davutoglu criticized the Turkish secular newspaper Cumhuriyet for
publishing excerpts of Charlie Hebdo's latest edition, saying
freedom of the press did not extend to insulting religious values, a
crime punishable by jail in Turkey.
Cumhuriyet's was one of five international versions of the
"survivors' edition" of Charlie Hebdo, which bore an image of
Mohammed on its cover, which is prohibited by Islamic convention. A
Turkish court subsequently ordered four websites that featured the
image to be blocked.
"Freedom of press does not include insulting the Prophet," Davutoglu
said. "People who may tolerate insulting an individual will clearly
not respond with the same degree when it is against the Prophet.
Since Turkey has such a sensitivity, publishing a cartoon that aims
to insult the Prophet is a clear incitement."
Police secured the premises of Cumhuriyet after threats were made
against the newspaper.
Violence erupted at an Islamist paper, Yeni Akit, late on Wednesday
after it published negative images of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who
toppled the Ottoman sultan and founded the secular republic in 1923.
He is deemed a national hero by most Turks.
Yeni Akit said about 200 armed nationalists threw eggs and rocks,
then tried to storm its offices before police stopped them.
(Additional reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall
and Mark Heinrich)
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