Welcome to Part III of these notes from Davos — from the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum. For our first two installments, go here and here. Shall we just get going, without many prelims, about the beauty of the Alps, the habits of the jet set, and so on? Okay.

The prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is meeting with a group of journos. I can’t help making a crack, to myself, when I see a reporter from Reuters — and I will inflict it on you: I think, “That’s nice: Middle Eastern leaders meeting with their core constituents and supporters.”

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And this leads me to another point, about Middle Eastern press delegations and their coverage of Middle Eastern leaders: I have observed them quite a bit over the years — Middle Eastern journalists at work. And they seem to me, not so much journalists, in my understanding of journalists, as members of the team: members of the governmental team.

Kind of like our MSM and Obama?

Anyway, enough yuk-yuk. Erdogan speaks to us through an interpreter — a very adept one, from all appearances — though he seems to understand English. I can tell by the way he looks when he listens to questions (all of which are in English).

He speaks about Turkey’s role as mediator between Israel and Syria. He recounts recent talks — pre-Gaza-war talks — with Olmert: for example, about the release of the Israeli soldier in the hands of Hamas. The other side asked for the release of many of their own. And Olmert’s response, according to Erdogan, was, “But that would be bad for Mahmoud Abbas,” the leader of Fatah Palestinians.

Erdogan continues (and I will paraphrase): “We said, ‘But you are holding many women and children. Why not arrange to release those?’ Olmert said he would get back to us. And while we were waiting for the reply, we were faced with the Gaza situation” — the new war. “We were saddened,” says Erdogan, adding that Israel had shown a “lack of respect” for Turkey and for the cause of peace.

There is no indication that Hamas’s breaking of the ceasefire caused any sadness or offense.

In the course of his remarks, Erdogan says, “If you want democratization in the Middle East, you have to show respect for elections, which the world has not done in the case of Palestine.” He means (if I may interpret), “Hamas won, get over it” (and, of course, matters are not so simple). He later observes, “People are quick to paint me or paint Turkey as anti-Semitic. That is an injustice. Anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity. I have said it ever since I took office, and I said it before.”

It occurs to me: I wonder how Erdogan defines “anti-Semitism.” Some people get cute with it, you know.

He continues, “What I have done is criticize the policies of the Israeli government. How can one explain the death of 1,300 civilians — men, women, and children — and the wounding of more than 6,000 others?” (Well, I can explain it: You might start with the Hamas practice of placing fighters and weapons in neighborhoods, mosques, schools, hospitals, and so on.) “How will infrastructure be compensated for in Gaza?”

Further, “I was told that there were rockets being sent into Israel. Then I inquired about resulting deaths” — and there were few or none. I don’t quite catch him on this. But Erdogan’s point, which he makes forcefully, is clear: The Israelis acted in a grossly “disproportionate” manner. They had few casualties, and they caused a great many, in their offensive. Erdogan says, “I saw ten wounded Palestinians who had been brought to Turkey — and that told me all I needed to know about what was taking place in Gaza.”

Asked about the dispatch of George Mitchell to the Middle East, and how this might affect the Turkish role, Erdogan says, “Better than any Westerner can, we speak the language of the Middle East.” He also expresses the wish that President Obama “redefine ‘terror’ and ‘terrorist organizations’ in the Middle East” — and implement new policies based on those redefinitions. He does not specify, but I have a feeling he means: “Hezbollah, Hamas, and the like are kosher.”

He then suggests that the upcoming Israeli elections were a cause of the Gaza operation — a motive for it. And if that is true, he says, “the cost was too high” — too high to justify a maneuvering for political advantage. The facial expressions and body language of his team around him say: “Of course that was the reason.”

Toward the end of our discussion, he is asked about conspiracies against him and possible coups d’état. And he makes what I believe is the first charming and endearing remark I’ve ever heard from him: “We have a saying in Turkey: ‘If you’re involved in a dance’” — a certain folk dance — “‘then you inevitably have to sweat it out.’ And politics is like that. If you’re involved in politics, you understand that up front.”

Sometime after our session, a journalist intimately familiar with the region has a very interesting comment to make. He says that, when Turkey suffers terror attacks from northern Iraq (Kurdish separatists) — even when there are no deaths — the Turkish government goes in hard. And Erdogan would object to Israel’s doing the same?