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ADDS Turkey ready for evacuation of its citizens
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday condemned Israel’s ground operation in Lebanon and urged the United Nations and other international organisations to stop Israel without “wasting any more time”.
“Whatever it does, Israel will be stopped sooner or later,” Erdogan told the Turkish parliament at the opening of the legislative year.
“All state and international organisations, especially the UN, must stop Israel without wasting any more time,” he said.
The Israeli army said that it launched a ground offensive in Lebanon and that its forces engaged in clashes Tuesday, escalating the conflict after a week of intense air strikes that killed hundreds.
Erdogan said “the terror and genocide” Israel had carried out in Gaza had reached Lebanon and warned if not stopped, the Israeli leadership would set its sights on Turkey.
“I openly say that the Israeli leadership, acting with the delirium of the promised land and with a purely religious fanaticism, will set its sights on our homeland after Palestine and Lebanon,” Erdogan said, again comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.
“Just as Hitler, who saw himself in a giant mirror, was stopped, Netanyahu will be stopped in the same way,” he said.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said it had drawn up contingency plans to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon because “the security situation is likely to deteriorate”.
“In coordination with relevant institutions, alternative plans have been prepared for the evacuation of our citizens by sea or air from Lebanon,” the ministry said.
Turkey is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon.
The ministry also said guidelines for the evacuation of third countries’ citizens via Turkey have also been determined, adding that necessary preparations were underway in cooperation with nearly 20 countries that have requested support.
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