Turkey, Ankara, Dec. 29/ corr. Trend A. Aleskerov/ Condemning the Israeli strikes in Gaza Strip, the leadership of Turkey will take diplomatic steps to prevent escalation of military operations.
Prime Minister of Turkey, Rajab Tayyip Erdogan, criticized Israel's operations in Gaza Strip. He named these operations as "crime against humanity". Erdogan called upon Israel to cease attacks, making a speech at the meeting of the Justice and Development Party (JDP) headed by him.
Within the framework of efforts on preventing military operations in Gaza Strip, the head of the government also talked to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon by telephone and called upon the UNO to render humanitarian aid to people suffered from the military operations and stop Israel's military operation. In this regard, the Prime Minister described Israel's actions as "blow on peace worldwide".
In his turn, the President of Turkey Abdullah Gul had a telephone talk with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ali Babajan had a long phone talk with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni. During the talk, he called on Israel to immediately cease the attacks, warning that it could harm the security of the whole region. Babajan also got in touch with Ekmalladdin Ihsanoglu who heads the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and called on the organizations to take urgent actions, "Star" reported.
Meetings were conducted in Turkey's main towns, in Istanbul and Ankara where numerous participants protested against Israel's military operations.