13.03.2026 21:10
The third missile fired from Iran was also destroyed in Turkish airspace, and the first statement came from President Erdoğan. Erdoğan said, "The first statement regarding the third missile fired from Iran: We are preventing threats that violate our airspace."
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the National Will Iftar held in Istanbul. Erdoğan made statements after the iftar program.
ERDOĞAN: "WE ARE CAUTIOUS AGAINST THOSE WHO WANT TO DRAW OUR COUNTRY INTO WAR"
Speaking about the third missile fired from Iran, Erdoğan said: "Especially in the context our region is in, we need to strengthen our brotherhood and maintain common sense. Look, as a government, we are acting very cautiously against the plots, traps, and provocations that want to draw our country into war. We focus not only on the visible part of events but also on the hidden part behind the scenes; we do not exclude any possibility, any scenario, and we analyze and examine everything in detail.
"WE ARE PREVENTING ALL KINDS OF THREATS THAT VIOLATE OUR AIRSPACE"
Again, during this process, just like last night, we are also taking necessary preventive actions against all kinds of threats that violate our airspace. Turkey's ancient state wisdom, which has been built over thousands of years, and our government's 23 years of crisis management experience are our greatest guides in reading, understanding, and responding appropriately and proportionately to the complex events around us.
Keeping our country away from this fire pit is our top priority. I also want you to be very careful against sectarian and ethnic-based provocations that are being stirred up simultaneously with attacks on Iran."
Highlights from President Erdoğan's statements are as follows:
"It truly saddens us that the Islamic geography is remembered with pain, tears, conflicts, and wars during these blessed days. While Gaza, where we lost 72,000 martyrs, remains longing for peace despite the ceasefire, Israel's inhumane occupation policies in the West Bank have been added to this.
"WHAT DOES IT MATTER IF ALL THE SEAS OF A SCARED WORLD ARE BLUE?"
Since October 10, the number of martyrs in Gaza has reached 640. The vast majority of those killed are children, women, and the elderly. The children sent to school with a rose placed on their mothers' cheeks become targets of either missiles, bombs, or bullets. Unfortunately, we are faced with the same heartbreaking scene across our geography, from our neighbor Iran to Yemen, from Sudan to Somalia. What does it matter if all the seas of a scared world are blue, or if they are not?
What happens if all the seas of a world where six-year-old girls are shot dead with 335 bullets are blue, or if they are not? What happens if all the seas of a world where toys are stained with blood, dreams are left unfulfilled, and the flowers of smiles blooming on children's heavenly faces wither prematurely are blue, or if they are not? In a world where children have to raise children, I ask, what happens if all the seas are blue, or if they are not?
"THE MORE SAD THING IS THE WORLD'S SILENCE"
The more sad thing is the world's silence, insensitivity, and almost denial of the suffering experienced in this tableau. We saw this in the 13.5 years of oppression in Syria. We saw this while people were starving in Somalia. We saw this when our brothers were massacred in Khojaly. We saw this in Srebrenica before, during that genocide. Most recently, we saw this in the Gaza atrocities, and in a very painful way.
"THE DRAMA OF GAZA CHILDREN HAS NOT BEEN DISCUSSED EVEN AS MUCH AS A PENGUIN SEPARATED FROM ITS FLOCK"
While the people are reacting, and universities are turning into centers of resistance, unfortunately, administrations sometimes succumbed to pressure and sometimes to blackmail. Some countries ignored the oppression and genocide. Some countries supported genocidal entities like Israel. Except for a handful of countries, institutions, and organizations with conscience, principles, and courage; almost no one has reacted to the oppressions in our geography, let alone worked to stop them.
The drama of tens of thousands of Gazan and Syrian children whose families have been completely destroyed has not even been discussed as much as a penguin separated from its flock, thanks to the false conscience of the virtual world. My very dear brothers, in such a world that has suffered from a conscience seizure, we, as Turkey, are fighting together with your support to be the conscience of humanity.
"WE HAVE ALL MOBILIZED TOGETHER"
Today, the shepherd's fire ignited by Turkey at the center of Anatolia warms the hearts of millions of oppressed people across our heart and cultural geography. From Palestine to Arakan, from Africa to Latin America, we are present with all our means in places where the international community has turned its back. We have all mobilized to hold the hand of a stranger, wipe the tears of an oppressed person, and caress the head of an orphan and a widow. We are in solidarity with all the oppressed in the world, especially our brothers in Gaza.
I must emphasize this point: As long as we keep the solidarity and friendship among us alive, we can protect our democracy from threats and dangers. Just like the bricks of a wall… "The believers are like the bricks of a building." As long as we are tightly connected to each other, we can break the unclean hands reaching out to our independence and future.
We can only resist the ideological impositions of the group that insulted the nation with the statements they published a day before Ramadan. We did not distance ourselves, and God willing, we will continue our struggle as one heart, one wrist from now on."