In Israel's war against the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a clearly pro-Palestinian position.
He accused Israel of committing "war crimes", and said that Hamas is not a "terrorist" but a "liberation" organization. Israel withdrew the staff of the embassy in Ankara. On October 7, Hamas fighters penetrated the territory of Israel, killed over 1400 people, and kidnapped 240 and dragged them into the Gaza Strip.
Earlier, Erdogan called Israel a "terrorist state", and now he has declared that he will cut off all contacts with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whom he has "written off".
From the Turkish point of view, therefore, whoever supports the "terrorist" state of Israel also supports "war crimes" against the Palestinians, so he is not welcome in Turkey.
In that spirit, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus decided that the products of companies that allegedly support Israel in the war against Hamas are not sold in restaurants, cafeterias and teahouses on the campus of the Parliament, Reuters reports.
The Turkish parliament then removed Coca-Cola and Nestle products from its restaurants, a source confirmed to Reuters. Coca-Cola and Nestle did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the alleged sales ban.
A parliamentary source also told Reuters that Coca-Cola and Nestle instant coffee were the only brands removed from the menu, and that the decision was made in response to public demand.
In recent days, Turkish activists have been calling for a boycott of Israeli goods and Western companies that they consider to support Israel in posts on social networks, writes the Middle East Monitor portal, citing Reuters.
The Turkish government has strongly criticized Israel's bombing of Gaza and the West's support for Israel. Health officials in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, claim that more than 10.000 Palestinians have been killed so far in Israel's attacks, of which around 4.100 are children. Hundreds of thousands of Turks took to the streets to protest Israel's operations in Gaza over the past month.
JH/FoNet
Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com
