Turkey’s Prime Minister returned home to a hero's welcome this morning after storming off stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos during a heated spat over Israel’s assault on Gaza.

In the most dramatic moment of this year's muted Davos conference, Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked off a panel discussion including Shimon Peres and Ban Ki-Moon after a moderator cut off his reply to a long and impassioned monologue by the Israeli President.

Mr Erdogan gathered up his belongings and marched off stage, red-faced, shouting that he would not return to Davos again as he had not been allowed to speak.

Around 3,000 supporters gathered at Istanbul's airport in the early morning, waving red and white Turkish flags and banners reading "Conqueror of Davos" as Mr Erdogan's flight back from Davos landed.

Some carried banners denouncing Israel, a worrying development for a state that counts Turkey as its closest ally in the Muslim world and relies on its role as an intermediary between it and traditional enemies such as Syria.

"I did what I had to do," Mr Erdogan told reporters. "I cannot remain apathetic when it comes to these things, it's just not in my nature. I am duty-bound to defend the honour of my country."

Mr Erdogan blamed the debate's moderator, David Ignatius of the Washington Post, for the incident, although he condemned Mr Peres's hectoring behaviour on stage.

"My reaction was directed at the moderator. I think that if we have moderation in this way, we won't really get out of Davos what we all come here to get out of Davos, and it would cast a shadow over efforts to reach peace," he told reporters at the meeting.

"President Peres was speaking to the Prime Minister of Turkey – I am not just some leader of some group or tribe, so he should have addressed me accordingly.

Each of the four speakers in the debate on the Middle East was to have delivered a five-minute speech. Mr Ban, the UN Secretary-General, spoke for eight minutes and Mr Erdogan for 12.

Mr Ignatius intervened to silence the head of the Arab League after 12 minutes, but Mr Peres then spoke uninterrupted for 25 minutes, raising his voice, pointing fingers and challenging the other panellists over what they would do in Israel's position.

"President Peres you are older than I am. Maybe you are feeling guilty and that is why you are so strong in your words. You killed people. I remember the children who died on beaches," Mr Erdogan said before he was cut off as the debate was due to end. He then stormed out, pursued by a phalanx of bodyguards and crowds of reporters.

Hamas, the Islamist leaders in Gaza, hailed Mr Erdogan for his "courageous stance" against Israel's war in Gaza, which killed more than 1,300 people, a third of them children.

"Hamas pays tribute to the courageous stand of Turkey's Prime Minister ... who in Davos directly defended the victims of the criminal Zionist war against our children and women in Gaza," said spokesman Fawzi Barhum.

"We consider his departure from the room an expression of support for the victims of the Holocaust carried out by the Zionists."

Mr Peres, a former Nobel Peace Prize winner, later called Mr Erdogan to apologise. At a press conference arranged hastily by Davos's organisers, Mr Erdogan said that he was still considering whether he would return to the forum or not. It was not immediately clear what impact the row would have on relations with Israel or Turkey's mediating role.

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