(JTA) — Turkey condemned the attack on the Jewish Museum of Belgium and pledged to fight against religious intolerance.
The attack last weekend on the museum in central Brussels left four people dead, including two Israelis. The unidentified gunman remains at large.
“We want to hope that the attack was not launched with racist motivations and does not have anti-Semitic characteristics,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a written statement released late Wednesday, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reported. The statement also extended condolences to the victims’ families.
“We want to once more emphasize Turkey will continue its efforts aimed at preventing all kinds of religious intolerance and xenophobia, which include threats, provocation or violence against humanity, in the upcoming period as it has done in the past,” the statement said.
It concluded, “We support the Belgian Government’s efforts towards arresting the perpetrators of this attack in the shortest possible time and shedding light on the causes of this serious incident.”
Also Wednesday, the United Nations Security Council condemned the attack, saying there may have been “anti-Semitic motivation behind it.”
“The members of the Security Council strongly condemned all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, especially against an institution whose mission has always been to promote openness and tolerance,” read a statement from the council, the Times of Israel reported, citing the Chinese news agency Xinhua.
