MOSCOW, January 15 President of Turkey Tayyip Erdogan asked Turkish officials not to participate in the WEF summit in Davos this week because of the organizers' position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Bloomberg reported, citing informed sources.
«Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek planned to attend the annual meeting of political and business leaders until Erdogan, who had criticized Israel's handling of the Gaza war, stopped him,» the agency writes.
It is noted that such a decision by the Turkish leader may complicate Ankara's attempts to interact with global investors.
It is noteworthy that this is not the first time that the Turkish president uses Davos to reflect his political position on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the agency writes. In 2009, Erdogan sharply criticized the then-Israeli President Shimon Peres over Israel's operation in the Gaza Strip and left the forum, promising never to participate in it again. Erdogan still keeps his promise, but Turkish officials began to visit the EEF several years after those events.