Turkish president accuses 'the West' of being behind Charlie Hebdo attacks and deliberately 'blaming Muslims'

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Blame game: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested French security forces were behind the Paris attacks as they 'track' former prisoners and the culprits in the Charlie Hebdo shootings had served time.

The President of Turkey has suggested French security forces are to blame for the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris last week, since the culprits had recently served prison sentences.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the West of 'playing games with the Islamic world', warning fellow Muslims to be 'aware'.

Erdogan said Muslims are 'paying the price' for the attacks on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish kosher supermarket in Paris last week.

'French citizens carry out such a massacre, and Muslims pay the price,' Erdogan said yesterday.

'That's very meaningful ... Doesn't their intelligence organisation track those who leave prison?

'Games are being played with the Islamic world, we need to be aware of this.

'The West's hypocrisy is obvious. As Muslims, we've never taken part in terrorist massacres. Behind these lie racism, hate speech and Islamophobia,' Erdogan added.

Erdogan also denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for attending a solidarity rally in France on Sunday with other world leaders after the Paris attacks.

'How can a man who has killed 2,500 people in Gaza with state terrorism wave his hand in Paris, like people are waiting in excitement for him to do so? How dare he go there?' he said.

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Erdogan made the comments at a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ankara on Monday.

Erdogan did not attend the Sunday march, though Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu participated.

Erdogan is not the only senior Turkish politician publicly voicing conspiracy theories over the Paris attacks.

The Mayor of Ankara, Melih Gokcek, said he was convinced the Israeli intelligence service Mossad was behind the attacks, linking them to France's recent move towards recognising Palestine as an independent state.

'Mossad is definitely behind such incidents... it is boosting enmity towards Islam.' Mr Gokcek said, according to .

In Russia, several pro-Kremlin commentators blamed the United States and the CIA for the attack, the newspaper reported.

One, Alexei Martynov, director of the International Institute for New States, said 'I am sure that some American supervisors are responsible for the terror attacks in Paris, or in any case the Islamists who carried them out.'

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