ANKARA - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel has offered his condolences to families of those, who lost their lives in Thursday's bombings in Istanbul.
Prime Minister Sharon held a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday.
Extending condolences on behalf of Israeli people, Prime Minister Sharon said that they had commiserated with Turkish people who lost their beloved ones in the attacks.
''As a person, who well-knows what you will feel during today's funerals, I want to stress that we have to wage a joint fight against terrorism on the international level. This is not a fight against the Islam, but against fundamentalist terrorism,'' he said.
Stressing that Turkish people were sound, determined and courageous, Prime Minister Sharon noted that Turkey will not submit to terrorism.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Erdogan thanked Israeli people for their sincere thoughts, saying, ''recent terrorist acts have proved that terrorists do not have any sense of time, place and identity. But, these attacks will not intimidate us. They cannot put an end to our struggle for free life. Also, I want to stress once again that the free world should unite against international terrorism and co-operate in fight against it.''
(UK) 22.11.2003