‘Buddhist terror’ targeting Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar: Erdoğan

ISTANBUL

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sept. 25 that security forces in Myanmar were waging “Buddhist terror” against Rohingya Muslims in the country, slamming what he called a lack of humanitarian efforts by the international community to protect the rights of the Muslim minority.

“There is obviously a genocide going on there. I am saying it clearly and they might be disturbed: Do those who speak to the world about ‘Islamic terrorism’ also talk about ‘Christian terrorism,’ ‘Jewish terrorism’ or ‘Buddhist terrorism’? No. They always show Buddhists as goodwill ambassadors like this. But actually there is ‘Buddhist terrorism’ going on in Myanmar right now,” Erdoğan said at the International Ombudsman Conference in Istanbul.

“No doubt they will now tear into Erdoğan now. Let them do it. You cannot cover this up with Yoga or anything else ... All humanity should know this,” he added.

Erdoğan claimed that there would be tens of thousands more casualties “if Turkey had not told the world” about events in Myanmar.

He particularly singled out the United Nations for criticism, complaining that the U.N. session on Rohingya Muslims during the 72nd General Assembly last week only saw the participation Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the presidential level, the Pakistani and Bangladeshi prime ministers at the prime ministry level, and the deputy prime minister of Indonesia. The remaining participants were at the level of foreign ministers, Erdoğan said, slamming the “indifference” of the international community on the Rohingya tragedy and calling for “sanctions rather than condemnations.”

Repeating his criticism of the international system, the Turkish president blasted the fact that the operational power of the U.N. General Assembly was “in the hands of only five countries,” which he said “locked the system.”

The presence of the U.N. cannot clearly be seen in crisis regions around the world that need humaniarian aid, and the necessary operations are constantly postponed due to the interests of the five countries of the U.N. Security Council, he claimed.

Erdoğan also stated that Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, one of his deputies, and the environment and urbanization minister would be visiting Bangladesh soon in order to examine camps set up for Rohingya Muslims there.

Earlier this month, First Lady Emine Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu visited Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh alongside a Turkish delegation, during which they distributed aid to the Muslim minority.