ANKARA — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel to
Libya next week to receive a human rights prize dedicated to Libyan
leader Moamer Kadhafi, his office said on Friday.
Erdogan will
receive the Kadhafi International Prize for Human Rights on Wednesday [30-November 2010] at
a ceremony in Tripoli, where he would also attend, as a guest, an
Africa-EU summit, the statement said.
Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, Cuban leader Fidel Castro and South Africa’s Nelson Mandela are
among the previous recipients of the prize.
Erdogan has won
significant popularity in the Arab world due to his tough rhetoric
against Israel, following the Jewish state’s devastating war on the Gaza
Strip last year and its deadly operation on a Gaza-bound aid ship in
May, in which nine Turks were killed.
