US Peace Community Brings Condolences and Support to Turkish People after Israeli attacks June 3rd, 2010 |
WHAT: Peace
Community holds press conference outside the Turkish Embassy
WHEN: 11am Friday,
June 4, 2010
WHERE:
Turkish Embassy: 2525 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W Washington, D.C. 20008
WASHINGTON- Members of
the U.S. peace community will be meeting with Turkish embassy officials
to deliver a wreath, cards and other expressions of condolences for the
deaths of the Turkish citizens on the nonviolent Gaza Flotilla.
Israel's brutal and illegal attack, that occurred in international
waters on a Turkish-flagged vessel, also took the life of Furkan Dogan,
an American citizen of Turkish decent.
The group, consisting of
interfaith peace activists, will also thank the Turkish people and their
government for the strong stand they have taken in support of the
Flotilla and in opposition to Israel's blockade against the Gazan
people. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rightly
characterized the Israeli operation as "a blow to world peace and
against international law" and vowed not to "sit by in silence."
The group appreciates
Turkey's position of condemning the Israeli attacks on peace activists
in international waters, demanding an end to the siege on Gaza and
reaffirming its commitment to aid the Palestinian people.
"We thank the Turkish
government for its vigorous condemnation of the Israeli attack and wish
that our government would take the same position," said CODEPINK
cofounder Medea Benjamin, one of the event organizers. "We will be
pushing our President and Congress to follow Turkey's lead in calling
for accountability and pressuring Israel to lift the crippling siege of
Gaza."
“We also mourn the death of one of our own citizens, 19-year old Furkan Dogan, a Turkish-American who was killed with weapons donated by our government to Israel's military and used indiscriminately on Palestinian, Turkish and now American unarmed citizens,” said Benjamin. ### |
