Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the massacres of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in the Gaza Strip entered history as a disgrace.
This came in statements made by President Erdogan to reporters on board the plane during his return from the Emirates, which he visited on Friday, to participate in the Global Climate Action Summit within the framework of the twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28).
Erdogan added, “The massacres of Netanyahu’s government in Gaza entered history as a disgrace, and this stain also stained the foreheads of the countries that supported him without restrictions and conditions.”
Regarding the Israeli attacks on Gaza, President Erdogan said: “What we see is a massive act of terrorism. It is state terrorism. We cannot remain silent about this state terrorism.”
Erdogan stressed that Western countries, with the exception of some “brave” countries such as Spain, are not fulfilling their responsibilities in opposing injustice.
He continued, “We were not unjust in any period of history, and we did not accept injustice. That is why our foreheads are white, but the faces of those who are silent today are black.”
He stressed that the world “will never forget the indifference of these countries and international organizations, and they will pay the price for their silence for years and generations. We will do our utmost to ensure that the International Criminal Court punishes this genocide.”
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The Turkish President pointed out that “Israel’s rulers, who have long promoted themselves as victims of genocide, have turned into killers, like the killers of their ancestors.”
He continued: “They will not be able to erase this from people’s minds, historical records, and consciences.”
Regarding the position towards the Hamas movement, Erdogan said: “I still stand by my opinion. I can never consider Hamas a terrorist organization, no matter what others say.”
Regarding holding those responsible for the massacres accountable, Erdogan said: “We expect from the International Criminal Court that the perpetrators of genocide and the butchers of Gaza, led by Netanyahu, receive the necessary punishment.”
President Erdogan said: “We hope that the decision that will be issued will satisfy those waiting for justice. We will pursue this case at the highest level.”
He continued: “We want all Israeli officials involved in this genocide to be tried and punished. The world has a duty to do so.”
The Turkish President pointed out that Israel will be held accountable sooner or later for the genocide it is committing.
He added: “Those who are afraid to speak out against the oppressor will certainly feel ashamed to remain silent. This is what I mean when I say: We are not beholden to anyone.”
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He stressed that Turkey will continue to make its efforts in all forums to end the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and ensure a permanent ceasefire.
The Turkish President stated that from the beginning he supported a permanent ceasefire instead of a “humanitarian truce.”
He added: “What the situation has become as a result of the lawless Israeli approach has shown once again that we were right in our fears. There was an opportunity for peace and unfortunately we have lost it at the present time due to the intransigent Israeli approach.”
He continued: “I hope that we will once again get the opportunity for permanent peace that we are waiting for, and we will not give up the pursuit of peace. We continue our contacts with heads of state and government, and we expressed this opinion to our interlocutors during our meetings (at COP 28). We want to continue striving with them and we hope that we will obtain a result”.
President Erdogan pointed out that the efforts of the ministerial delegation formed by a decision of the Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh have begun to achieve results.
The delegation includes the Foreign Ministers of Turkey Hakan Fidan, Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Farhan, Egypt Sameh Shukri, Qatar Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman, Jordan Ayman Al-Safadi, Palestine Riyad Al-Maliki, Indonesia Retno Marsudi, and Nigeria Yusuf Maitama Togar.
The Arab-Islamic delegation conducted a tour to the capitals of the five permanent members of the Security Council with the aim of building an international consensus to end the war on Gaza.
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President Erdogan continued: “Western countries that support Israel constantly ask the question, ‘What will we do about the Hamas threat?’ Instead of the two-state solution, we say: If we focus now on the two-state solution, the mutual threats will also disappear.”
He touched on the final statement of the emergency summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League in Riyadh last November, indicating that settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories were described as “terrorists” for the first time at the Islamic Cooperation Summit.
He pointed out that the only thing Westerners cannot currently defend is “murders committed by settlers.”
“Even the Americans are openly criticizing these illegal actions,” Erdogan said. “We can start by abandoning the term settler and using and spreading the description of terrorist occupier” when describing irregular settlers.
He stressed that the homes, lands and workplaces seized by these people were “private property” of the Palestinians.
On Friday morning, a temporary truce between the Palestinian resistance factions and Israel ended, concluded with Qatari-Egyptian mediation and lasted for 7 days, during which prisoners were exchanged and humanitarian aid was brought into the Strip, which is inhabited by about 2.3 million Palestinians.
On October 7, Israel launched a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, leaving massive infrastructure destruction and tens of thousands of civilian casualties, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to official Palestinian and UN sources.
