(JTA) — The longtime mayor of Ankara accused Israel’s Mossad of masterminding last week’s terror attacks in France.
Melih Gokcek said Israeli intelligence planned the attacks in retaliation for France recently expressing support for Palestinian statehood, according to Today’s Zaman, an English-language Turkish publication, citing the Andalou news agency.
At a political event Sunday, Gokcek said it “is certain that Mossad is behind these kinds of incidents. Mossad enflames Islamophobia by causing such incidents.”
The head of Turkey’s capital city also claimed that following the Paris attacks, approximately 50 mosques and some Muslim individuals were targeted but there was no coverage from the international media.
On Twitter last summer, Gokceck called for the Israeli Consulate in Turkey to close because “we don’t want a representative of murderers in Turkey.”
Gokcek has been mayor of Ankara, Turkey’s second largest city, since 1994.
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