Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan denounced before the UN General Assembly Israel‘s military operations in Gaza, which he described not as a war but as a “policy of mass murder”, while urging the international community to support the Palestinian people, whom he described as victims of unprecedented suffering under what he defined as a pure campaign of extermination.
“Every hour – yes, every hour for the past 23 months – a child has been brutally torn from life by Israel in Gaza. These are not just numbers, my friends; each number represents a life, an innocent human being,” he told the UN delegates. Erdoğan said the scale of the violence was unparalleled: “Recent history has not seen such brutality in the last century. With all due respect, we have reached the lowest point of humanity“.
Erdoğan rejected Israeli justifications that its operations in Gaza are part of the fight against terrorism: “There is no war in Gaza. There are not two sides facing each other. On one side is a regular army with the most modern and lethal weaponry; on the other, defenceless civilians, innocent children,” he declared. “What is happening there,” he continued, “is a policy of occupation, forced displacement, exile, genocide or, to be more precise, a policy of mass murder under the pretext of 7 October (the date of the Hamas attack)”.
Erdoğan further accused Israel of extending its offensive beyond Gaza and the West Bank, recalling attacks on Syria, Iran, Yemen and Lebanon, which he said put peace in the entire Middle East at risk; actions that he said “even disturb conscientious Jews”, and which amount to a “state of madness” that fuels anti-Semitism worldwide.
“The day has come to support the Palestinians“
“I sincerely address all heads of state and government: the day is today. Today is the day to stand firmly on the side of the oppressed Palestinians, in the name of humanity,” the Turkish president said in a direct appeal to the international community, further applauding those countries that have already recognised the Palestinian state and calling on those that have not yet done so to take the same step.
In his speech, Erdoğan denounced that Palestinians are not only dying from bombardment, but also “from the weapon of hunger“, citing UN data stating that at least 428 people have died of starvation in Gaza in the last few months alone, including 146 children. “Can such cruelty be justified on any reasonable grounds?” he asked as he showed the audience pictures of malnourished and injured Palestinian children.
The Turkish president painted a devastating picture in Gaza, citing a collapsed health system, doctors killed or detained, ambulances attacked and hospitals bombed. “Today, tragically, children as young as two or three years old – without hands, without arms, without legs – have become the daily image of Gaza,” he lamented.
Erdoğan also accused Israel of trying to silence the press by deliberately killing 250 journalists and banning the international media from entering, yet “even then they have not been able to hide the genocide“, and recalled that even UN staff have not been protected: of the 500 aid workers killed in Gaza, 326 were UN employees.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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