Free Republic

While continuing his harsh accusations against Israel over its deadly raid on an aid flotilla, the Turkish prime minister said he does not see Hamas as a terrorist organization, but as a resisting group struggling for its own land.“They [Hamas] won the election. You are always talking about democracy. You’ll never let Hamas rule. What kind of democracy is this?” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday at a rally held in Konya, a central Anatolian province. He addressed thousands of people gathered at the rally with very strong anti-Israel sentiments.“I do not think that Hamas is a terrorist organization....

A U.S. citizen who lived in Turkey is among the nine people killed when Israeli commandos stormed a Turkish aid ship heading for the Gaza Strip, officials said today. The victim was identified as Furkan Dogan, 19, a Turkish-American. A forensic report said he was shot at close range, with four bullets in his head and one in his chest, according to the Anatolian news agency. Dogan was a high school student studying social sciences in the town of Kayseri in central Turkey. He was born in the United States and moved to Turkey at the age of 2. He...