'CNN mistranslated Erdogan's Palestinian casualty remark'

Hurriyet: Erdgoan said hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed by the Israelis, not hundreds of thousands.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Tayyip Erdogan 311 (photo credit: REUTERS/Murad Sezer)
Tayyip Erdogan 311
(photo credit: REUTERS/Murad Sezer)
Comments made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan's to CNN concerning the number of Palestinians Israel has killed in the ongoing conflict was mistranslated by the network, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported on Wednesday.
According to the original translation, Erdogan apparently said that Israel has killed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
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A Turkish transcript of the interview, provided by Turkish state news agency Anatolia, revealed that "Erdogan said hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed by Israelis," Hurriyet reported.
Erdogan's comments stirred up harsh criticism from top Israeli officials. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Jerusalem Post that Israel "has certainly not taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians."
"I regret that we hear these statements from the leader of Turkey," Netanyahu said.
Relations between the governments in Ankara and Jerusalem hit a low following disagreements over a resolution of the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010 in which 9 Turkish activists were killed when the IDF intercepted their Gaza-bound ship, and the Turkish prime minister has been touting anti-Israel rhetoric as a result.
According to Hurriyet, which quoted a report from Cihan news agency, former Israeli ambassador to Turkey Alon Liel criticized CNN's mistranslation, saying that the agency had badly tarnished the Erdogan's image.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman facetiously welcomed Erdogan's outlandish and especially aggressive comments during his CNN interview, saying “I saw Erdogan on CNN, and I think [his performance] was great for us."
“If I wanted to improve Israeli hasbara [advocacy], I would buy media outlets around the world and have Erdogan talk from morning until night.”