Abbas, Erdoğan

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to visit Turkey

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan‘s Justice and Development Party (AKP) announced that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will soon visit Turkey – for now at an undetermined date – following criticism by the Turkish president of Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress.

According to Turkish media reports late yesterday, AKP party spokesman and former minister Ömer Çelik told in a press conference in Ankara that the Palestinian leader was unable to accept Erdoğan’s initial invitation due to health problems, and therefore plans to visit Turkey at ‘another date’.

These reports come after Erdoğan openly criticised Abbas and demanded an apology from him saying that he had not responded to the invitation made to speak before the Turkish parliament, in response to the eponymous invitation made to Netanyahu to speak before the US Congress. ‘Some parties in my country say that the government should invite the Palestinian president to Turkey to speak in parliament… Who says we haven’t done that? Unfortunately, Abbas did not accept the invitation,’ the Turkish president said on 27 July.

Palestinian Ambassador to Ankara Faed Mustafa also confirmed that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is planning an official visit to Turkey. Mustafa explained that Abbas, who plans to meet with Erdoğan, had received an invitation from Turkish parliamentary speaker Numan Kurtulmuş to address the Turkish Grand National Assembly.