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Sorry - this page has been removed. Erdogan chides Obama for silence on Chapel Hill murders
(3 months later)
This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday criticised US President Barack Obama for his silence following the killings of three young Muslims in North Carolina this week, in the latest sign that relations between the two leaders have become strained.
Speaking alongside Enrique Peña Nieto, the president of Mexico, during a state visit there, Erdogan said the silence of Obama, vice-president Joe Biden and secretary of state John Kerry was telling and that they should take a position following such acts.
For further information, please contact: “If you stay silent when faced with an incident like this, and don’t make a statement, the world will stay silent towards you,” Erdogan said, condemning those responsible for the crime.
The three Muslims were shot dead on Tuesday near the University of North Carolina campus in an incident police have said was possibly a hate crime. The White House said on Wednesday that it would await the results of the police investigation before commenting.
Newlywed Deah Barakat, 23, a University of North Carolina dental student, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha, 19, a student at North Carolina State University, were gunned down on Tuesday in a condominium about two miles (3km) from the UNC campus in Chapel Hill.
Police charged the couple’s neighbour, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, with murder. Investigators say initial findings indicate a dispute over parking prompted the shooting, but they are looking into whether Hicks was motivated by hatred toward the victims because they were Muslim.
Turkey, a European Union candidate nation and member of the Nato military alliance, is a key US ally in the fight against Islamic jihadists. But Erdogan, a devout Sunni Muslim, has become increasingly outspoken about what he sees as rising Islamophobia in the West. Last year, Erdogan said his relations with Obama had become strained and that he no longer spoke directly with him as he was disappointed by a lack of US action over the war in neighbouring Syria. Erdogan said he instead spoke with Biden over issues such as Iraq.
Although they work together to combat Isis, differences have arisen between the US and Turkey over how best to tackle the insurgents. Turkey has been an opponent of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, backing rebels fighting to oust him and allowing the political opposition to organise on Turkish soil. It long lobbied for international intervention in the war.