WRAP Turkish PM leaves stage after clash with moderator on Gaza debate

(29 Jan 2009) SHOTLIST WEF POOL 1. Wide of stage, including Israeli President, Shimon Peres and Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan 2. Stage, with Peres talking 3. Mid of audience listening 4. Mid of Peres and Erdogan on stage 5. Close of Peres speaking, turning to Erdogan, UPSOUND (English) Peres: “I want to understand why did they fire rockets against us. What for? There was not any siege against Gaza.“ 6. Various of Erdogan asking for time to respond, UPSOUND (English) Erdogan: “one minute, one minute...“, moderator: “ok, I will hold you to the one minute ...“ 7. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Prime Minister: (taken from simultaneous translation) “I feel that you perhaps feel a bit guilty and that is why perhaps you have been so strong in your words, so loud. Well, you killed people. I remember the children who died on the beaches.“ 8. Various of Erdogan trying to speak and, chairperson trying to end proceedings UPSOUND Moderator: “I have to ask you to defer to our host ...“, Erdogan (Turkish) Thank you very much, so I don’t think I will come back to Davos after this, thank you. Because you don’t let me speak. The (Israeli) president spoke for 25 minutes, I have spoken half of that.“ 9. Erdogan walks off stage, Arab League Secretary General, Amr Moussa stands up and shakes his hand AP TELEVISION 10. People gathered in hallway 11. SOUNDBITE (English) Amr Moussa, Arab League Secretary-General: “Yes he walked out because he was not given the full time to answer, and we also wanted him to answer because what Mr. Peres said was first unacceptable, second, many of the points were not really accurate and we wanted to say something. So the Prime Minister of Turkey was not given that opportunity. He is after all the Prime Minister of Turkey and he wants to speak.“ AP TELEVISION 12. Erdogan talking to officials in hallway 13. Erdogan walking into news conference 14. Erdogan taking seat in news conference 15. SOUNDBITE (English) Klaus Schwab, Founder of World Economic Forum: “Ladies and gentlemen, you can imagine how much I regret how this session ended, and I first want to express my deep concern because I have great esteem for Prime Minister Erdogan.“ 16. Wide of news conference 17. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Prime Minister: “He (the moderator) gave the Israeli president a 25-minute-speech and he didn’t say anything when the president raised his voice to me, raised his voice directly to me and he didn’t say anything when the president took an attitude against discussion rules that we are used to here in Davos.“ 18. Wide of news conference 19. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Prime Minister: “I have respect for Mr. Peres, also for his age and that’s why I did not raise my voice. I could have raised my voice louder. I have to say what he says is not true.“ 20. Wide of news conference ending 21. Erdogan shaking hands with Schwab STORYLINE Turkey’s prime minister stalked off the stage at the World Economic Forum red-faced Thursday after reproaching Israel’s president over the Gaza offensive by saying “You kill people.“ The packed audience, which included President Barack Obama’s close adviser Valerie Jarrett, appeared stunned as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli President Shimon Peres raised their voices and traded accusations. Peres was passionate in his defence of Israel’s 23-day offensive against Hamas militants, launched in reaction to eight years of rocket fire aimed at Israeli territory. Thirteen Israelis also died. “Only a minute,“ Ignatius replied. Find out more about AP Archive: Twitter: Facebook: ​​ Instagram: You can license this story through AP Archive: