Turkey seeks right to build monument in J'lem's Old City - Haaretz

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Sun., November 04, 2007 Cheshvan 23, 5768

Israel Time: 01:42 (EST+7)

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Turkey seeks right to build monument in J'lem's Old City

By Nadav Shragai

Turkey would like to build a monument to those who died fighting for the Ottoman Empire at the foot of the Temple Mount's eastern wall, not far from the Golden Gate.

The proposal, which the Prime Minister's Office supports, was recently submitted to the Jerusalem Municipality for approval. The Waqf, or Islamic religious trust, which controls the Temple Mount, has already given Turkey land for the monument, which would be about three meters high and fly a Turkish flag.

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While the municipality has not yet discussed the proposal, rightist councilmen have already expressed opposition. Councilman Yair Gabbay (National Religious Party) has asked the city's legal adviser to nix the project on the grounds that according to the city's master plan, all construction is forbidden within 70 meters of the Temple Mount. The plot the Waqf has allocated to Turkey is a mere five meters from the mount.

Sources in the Jerusalem Municipality said that the proposal would be examined according to the usual legal criteria, but the stance of the Prime Minister's Office and the diplomatic sensitivities entailed would be taken into consideration.

Turkey controlled this area until 1917, when it was ousted by the British during World War I. Today, it has good relations with Israel, but during the war, it deported many Jews because a Jewish group known as Nili had been providing intelligence to the British.

The last time a similar issue arose was immediately after the 1967 Six-Day War, when the Waqf and Arab residents of East Jerusalem sought permission to erect several monuments to soldiers of the Jordanian Legion who were killed in the battles for Jerusalem. Those proposals aroused fierce public debate, but eventually a compromise was reached, under which one central monument for all the battles was erected.

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