ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to Saudi Arabia's defence on Friday as blame shifted towards the Saudi authorities after a stampede at the hajj pilgrimage killed at least 717 people.
"I do not sympathise with the hostile statements against Saudi Arabia," Erdogan told journalists.
The Turkish leader said that it would be wrong to "point a finger at Saudi Arabia which does its best", to make the annual hajj pilgrimage possible.
"You have to see the glass as half full," he said, adding that each country suffers failures.
The holy pilgrimage has been particularly deadly this year. On September 11, a crane fell at Mecca's Grand Mosque, killing 109 people.
Then on Thursday at least 717 people were killed, and several hundred more injured in the worst tragedy to strike the annual Muslim pilgrimage in a quarter-century.
AFP
