18.04.2025 16:30
President Erdoğan spoke at the 'Parliamentary Group Supporting Palestine' Meeting held in Istanbul. His words, "Remember, Gaza belongs to Gazans! Palestine belongs to the Palestinian people! While millions of Palestinian refugees wait to return to their homes, holding onto the keys, we can never tolerate new migrations. Even if we are left alone, we will defend the Palestinian cause," were met with prolonged applause.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the "Parliamentary Group Supporting Palestine" Meeting held in Istanbul.
Highlights from President Erdoğan's statements:
"DEFENDING PALESTINE IS DEFENDING HUMANITY, PEACE, AND JUSTICE"
First of all, I want to express my happiness in hosting the friends of Palestine in our country. We have come together to be the voice of Palestine, which has been the cradle of many civilizations throughout history and has hosted many prophets. Today, we unite our hearts not only to defend a place and a people but also to defend justice, peace, and resistance. Welcome to our beautiful Istanbul, the city of civilization, history, and culture.
I sincerely thank each member of the parliamentary group supporting Palestine. I pray that your meeting and the decisions you will make will bring goodness to Palestine. I also want to extend my gratitude to all the parliamentarians who see the Palestinian cause as their own issue and support it through you. We have followed the speeches made before us with great interest. I congratulate both of our speakers for the very important messages they delivered.
I would like to remind you of this fact once again. Defending the Palestinian cause is not just about defending an oppressed people. Defending Palestine is defending humanity, peace, and justice.
The Palestinian cause is a dignity cause for a people that has been subjected to all kinds of oppression, barbarism, and massacre for nearly a century. Along with all this, the Palestinian cause is essentially a struggle to be human and to remain human. It is an issue for every person with a conscience, as well as for Muslims. Of course, this cause is a matter of conscience beyond politics. You, my brothers and sisters present here today, are actually doing this.
With your stance, you are defending not only Palestine and the Palestinian people but also humanity and human values. By not remaining silent against oppression and not bowing to pressure, you are becoming a breath of fresh air for all humanity. I congratulate each of you for your strong support for the Palestinian cause, for your honorable stance in difficult times, and for standing courageously on the side of humanity. I also thank the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for leading this meaningful meeting.
Inshallah, we will preserve this solidarity and unity forever.
"WE HAVE ENCOUNTERED A GROUP THAT HAS LOST ITS HUMANITY"
Since October 7, 2023, our brothers and sisters from Gaza and Palestine have been subjected to one of the greatest acts of banditry of the last century. The Israeli government is slaughtering our Palestinian brothers and sisters in a complete frenzy, regardless of children, women, babies, or the elderly.
Nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been brutally killed by Israel, the vast majority of whom are women and children. More than 7% of the population has either been killed or disabled. A total of 212 journalists working to convey the realities on the ground have been executed. The day before yesterday, they martyred a female journalist along with her family of 10.
Hundreds of doctors, nurses, and health personnel have become targets of bullets. Aid workers have been killed. Babies have died because they could not find medicine, water, or food. We have encountered a group that has lost its humanity to the extent of celebrating a child's birthday by killing Gazan children.
"Gaza HAS BEEN DEVASTATED TO THE POINT WHERE NOT A STONE WILL BE LEFT ON STONE"
Schools, churches, mosques, and universities have been bombed. Nearly 80% of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed. Gaza has been devastated to the point where not a stone will be left on stone. We are talking about a massive pile of debris weighing over 50 million tons. With the renewed attacks, Israel is systematically destroying the last standing buildings, hospitals, civilian settlements, and clean water sources, which are the lifeblood of Gaza. The settler brutality under the protection of the occupying forces continues unabated in the West Bank. The more serious aspect of the issue, my dear brothers and sisters, is that all this oppression and barbarism has been laid bare before the eyes of all humanity, including the so-called civilized world, for a full 18 months. Journalists are being killed. International media organizations are watching.
"WHERE IS INTERNATIONAL LAW?"
Children are being killed, and human rights defenders are watching. Health workers are being killed, and the Western world is watching. Critical institutions like UNRWA are being targeted for closure, and the United Nations process is merely watching. Those who have spoken of freedom, rights, law, and press freedom for years have been playing the three monkeys in the face of Israel's massacre policy for a full 18 months. I ask once again from here: Where is international law? Where is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Where are the organizations, structures, and institutions that raise their voices and have budgets in the billions of dollars?
In the smallest incident, Western states pull the embargo weapon; I ask, where are they against Israel? Where is the BBC? Where is CNN and the others? While humanity is being killed in Gaza, while children, babies, and women are burning to death, while journalists are being executed, is there anyone in the world who sees this?
"THE WORLD HAS BECOME A PRISONER OF A SYSTEM THAT APPLAUDS OPPRESSION"
A global order that does not stand by the oppressed is doomed to be a toy of the oppressors. Today, the world has become a prisoner of a system that remains silent in the face of oppression, even applauding it. International law has become an apparatus for reinforcing the power of the strong, rather than establishing justice. Instead of the rule of law, a legal order based on individuals and states prevails.
The international system has failed its test in Gaza. Many institutions, from the United Nations to the European Union, have failed miserably in Gaza at the cost of violating the principles they advocate. Of course, while criticizing others, we cannot neglect ourselves. Look. I say this with sadness. I say this with a bleeding heart. Unfortunately, the Islamic world has also failed to meet expectations.
Undoubtedly, a great effort has been made. Many ways were tried to prevent oppression. All possibilities of diplomacy were utilized. Meetings, summits, and contacts were held. But in the end, it was not possible to prevent the complete destruction of Gaza and the massacre of nearly 60,000 Gazans. We all need to think long and hard about this. It is clear that as Muslims, we need a comprehensive reckoning.
"WE SEE THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO NORMALIZE GENOCIDE"
Of course, I must emphasize this fact as well. We see that those who remain silent while Palestinians are being killed are trying to normalize genocide by labeling the resistance of the people of Gaza against the occupation as terrorism. As Turkey, I would like to clearly state today that we reject these slanders and this black propaganda.
"THE PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE MOVEMENT IS A NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT IN OUR VIEW"
The Palestinian people are fighting a struggle for freedom against the occupying forces. There is no difference between the struggle of our Gazan brothers and the independence struggle our nation fought against the invaders a century ago. The Palestinian resistance movement is, in our view, a national liberation movement.
Palestinians have been resisting not just for the last one and a half years, but actually for the last century. They have been writing a saga of resistance against an occupying and invading state that disregards international law for a century. But some people are disturbed by our voicing these issues. Let them continue to be disturbed. We will not refrain from shouting the truth and speaking out.
I salute the Palestinian people, in whom the concept of dignity is embodied, and our Gazan brothers on behalf of my country and my nation.
I remember with mercy the heroic sons of Palestine who fell to the ground while defending their homeland, our common martyrs. From here, I once again send our strongest messages of support and solidarity to our Palestinian brothers who resist against Israeli oppression. I invite the Islamic world and all of humanity to support the dignity struggle of the Palestinian people on behalf of all humanity. I also invite not only those with a conscience but also the people of Israel to take action against the disaster their governments are dragging them into.
I believe that a society that has experienced the Holocaust and has been subjected to genocide should now raise its voice, react, and tell its governments to 'stop' against the massacres, genocide, brutality, and murders taking place in Gaza and other Palestinian territories.
"WE CONTINUED OUR HUMANITARIAN AID WITHOUT INTERRUPTION"
From the very first day, Turkey was one of the countries that expressed its objections to this genocide at the highest level and took concrete measures against Israel. Thank God, we have passed a good test here. We are passing a good test. Our official institutions, as well as our civil society organizations, philanthropists, and business world have mobilized for Palestine and Gaza. We took a brave step by completely halting commercial transactions with Israel.
We continued our humanitarian aid to our Palestinian brothers without interruption. Thank God, we have delivered over 101,000 tons of humanitarian aid materials to Gaza with the support of brother countries in the region. I would like to thank them once again. We will continue to extend our hand to help Gaza. However, since March 2, Israel has once again shown its ugly face by blocking aid to Gaza. The Israeli government is trying to eliminate the innocents it cannot kill with bombs by stopping aid, in a way, through hunger, thirst, and lack of medicine. The humanitarian tragedy on the ground is getting worse and worse. As long as the crimes and massacres it commits go unpunished, the Israeli government accelerates its genocide policy. It is our fundamental duty to hold this inhumane mentality accountable before international law for the tens of thousands of children who have been brutally murdered.
"EVERY CRIME THAT GOES UNPUNISHED FURTHER SPOILS THE PERPETRATOR"
Remember that every crime that goes unpunished further spoils the perpetrator. We attach great importance to the genocide case opened against Israel in the International Court of Justice from this perspective. We have also made our application for intervention so that Israel is held accountable under the law. Our civil society organizations continue to provide files and evidence to the court. We hope to see Netanyahu and the murder gang tried in international courts sooner or later.
"AL-AQSA MOSQUE IS OUR RED LINE"
We see that attacks on Al-Quds and our first qibla, Al-Aqsa Mosque, have also increased. Fanatical, genocidal Israelis, accompanied and protected by armed security personnel, enter Al-Aqsa Mosque and provoke Muslims. I declare once again openly. The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, which are part of the Noble Sanctuary, belong solely to Muslims and are a whole with an area of 144 acres. We will not allow anyone to undermine this. Al-Aqsa Mosque is our red line. And it will remain so until eternity, God willing.
Israel must immediately cease its harassment, raids, and provocations that threaten the sanctity and integrity of the Noble Sanctuary. Israeli aggression and lawlessness are not limited to Palestine. Attacks on Syria and Lebanon reveal that the Netanyahu administration does not want peace and tranquility in the Middle East. It is trying to prevent Syria and Lebanon from achieving stability by stirring up ethnic and sectarian differences. It seeks to provoke external actors in the region to transfer conflicts to new geographies. It is playing a very dangerous game by collaborating with terrorist organizations. In other words, it acts not like a legitimate state but like a disorganized organization.
"ISRAEL CANNOT ENSURE ITS SECURITY BY INSTABILITY IN ITS NEIGHBORS"
Look, we believe that this is not sustainable. Israel cannot ensure its security by destabilizing its neighbors. Saying that I don't want the smoke to come to me while there is fire next door is not only irrational but also impossible. This state of madness, which threatens and disturbs the countries in the region along with its own citizens, must come to an end as soon as possible. Otherwise, that fire will soon burn those who fan the flames. As Turkey, we have not remained silent against any kind of arrogance, oppression, or lawlessness in our geography. We will not remain silent in the future either. We will patiently continue to defend peace, tranquility, stability, and security for everyone in our region.
At this stage, our priorities are to immediately establish a permanent ceasefire, ensure that humanitarian aid reaches our Gazan brothers without interruption, and completely withdraw the occupying forces from Gaza.
I hope that the ceasefire negotiations conducted by Qatar and Egypt will reach a conclusion as soon as possible. It is extremely important to resume reconstruction efforts without wasting any time once the ceasefire is established. The support of all brother countries represented here for the plan prepared under the leadership of Egypt is very important.
"THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION"
On this occasion, I would like to emphasize once again: There is no alternative to the two-state solution. We will continue to fight tirelessly until an independent, sovereign Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem is established based on the 1967 borders. I also want it to be known that no proposal that aims to exile Palestinians from the lands they have lived in for thousands of years has any value to us, regardless of how it is packaged.
ERDOĞAN'S WORDS APPLAUDED FOR A LONG TIME
Remember, Gaza belongs to Gazans! Palestine belongs to the Palestinian people! Palestine belongs to Palestinians! While millions of Palestinian refugees wait to return to their homes, where they keep their keys, we cannot tolerate new migrations or new displacements. We will provide all the support we can for our Palestinian brothers to live freely in their homeland, peacefully with other faiths. Even if we are left alone, we will continue to defend the Palestinian cause.
Finally, last week, within the framework of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, a meeting of the Islamic Cooperation Organization and the Arab League Gaza Contact Group was organized. It is impossible for the steps we take in the political arena to succeed without the support of the people. At this point, parliaments and you, esteemed presidents, have important duties in securing the necessary social support. I would like to express that we appreciate once again the resolute stance you have shown against the genocide in Gaza.
I say may God be our helper. With these thoughts, I wish our meeting to be a means of good. Through you, I send my heartfelt greetings to my brothers who are heads of state and government and to the friendly and brotherly peoples you represent. Wishing to meet again, I entrust you all to God. Stay safe.