ANKARA — Turkey's prime minister drew sharp criticism for comments equating Zionism to a crime against humanity at a UN meeting promoting dialogue between faiths, and a US official said Secretary of State John Kerry will take him to task for the “particularly offensive” remark. Addressing the UN Alliance of Civilizations conference in Vienna this week, Recep Tayyip Erdogan complained of prejudices against Muslims. He said Islamophobia should be considered a crime against humanity “just like Zionism, like anti-Semitism and like fascism.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply condemned the remark late Thursday, calling it a “dark and mendacious statement, the likes of which we thought had passed from the world.” The United States and the United Nations joined the criticism. In Washington, US National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor said Erdogan's characterization about Zionism, the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state, was “offensive and wrong.” “We encourage people of all faiths, cultures, and ideas to denounce hateful actions and to overcome the differences of our times,” he said. The uproar threatens to overshadow Kerry's previously planned visit to the Turkish capital, where he had hoped to spend much of his time discussing the crisis in neighboring Syria and coordinating plans with the Turks to assist the Syrian opposition, which is fighting to oust the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad. Instead, Kerry flew into Ankara from Rome Friday with the controversy in full swing, and a senior official accompanying him said Kerry would make a point of raising the matter in meetings with Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The official told reporters on Kerry's plane that President Barack Obama's administration was profoundly concerned by Erdogan's words and said such comments had a “corrosive effect” on Turkish-US ties. — AP
