Sudan leader cancels Turkey trip amid international protests

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Friday November 13, 2009

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, right, and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan shake hands before their meeting, in Ankara, Turkey, Jan. 21, 2008. Leading human rights groups criticized the visit and called on Turkish leaders to pressure him into ending violations in Sudan's Darfur region. Burhan Ozbilici / AP Photo

Washington - Wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was due to attend an Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit held in Istanbul on November 9, but cancelled at the last moment, international media reported.

Turkey previously hosted Mr. Bashir on a bilateral visit in January 2008 and its leaders said they saw no obstacles to Mr. Bashir's attendance this week.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan went as far as to suggest, in Mr. Bashir's defense, that "no Muslim could perpetrate a genocide," BBC quoted the Anatolian news agency as saying.

"If there was such a thing [a genocide], we could talk about it face to face with President Bashir," Mr. Erdogan was quoted as saying.

In recent years, Turkey has expanded relations with Sudan, in spite of international condemnation of its government, which has been blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Since March of this year, Mr. Bashir has been wanted on charges of crimes against humanity, murder, and forcible displacement in Darfur. Lobbying from the United States and the European Union is believed to have encouraged Turkey to have the visit called off.

Also skipping the OIC meeting was Azerbaijan's leader Ilham Aliyev. Media commentaries suggested that the reason for Mr. Aliyev's absence was that he remains unhappy with Turkey's stated policy of normalization of relations with Armenia.