Speaking during the
12th Ambassador Conference held in the capital Ankara on Monday, Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed some
EU leaders for encouraging
Islamophobia by turning a blind eye to the discrimination against
European Muslims.
"A worldwide struggle against
Islamophobia is urgently needed to fulfill our responsibilities for
Muslims and the
Islamic faith," the Turkish leader stressed in his speech as calling for
global efforts to combat
anti-Islamic discourses and acts.
The
Turkish leader said that rise of
Islamophobia and
xenophobia has transformed into an existential threat for millions of
Turkish people residing abroad as their
mosques,
schools, and
shops are targeted on a regular basis.
Erdoğan also pointed out that such a hostile discourse against
Islamic values has been even adopted at the
presidential level in some countries.
The
president added that it is hard for his country to understand how
foreign terrorist fighters Turkey deported could freely walk in
Western countries and hold activities.
Among the topics Erdoğan touched upon were developments in conflict-zones, including
Syria where millions were displaced and hundreds of thousands were slaughtered following
eruption of a civil war in 2011.
The president said
Turkish operations in northern Syria ensured safe return of some 411,000 Syrians as Ankara's
military operations cleared the region from
YPG/PKK and
Daesh/ISIS terrorists.
"We thwarted a new
humanitarian tragedy and huge migration influx with our presence in Idlib [province of northwestern Syria]," the president said, adding that Turkey welcomed 4.5 million refugees.
The Turkish leader criticized some countries, without naming any, for not extending a
helping hand -- despite their prosperity -- to war-weary
Syrians while Turkey did not hesitate to help them in line with its
humanitarian approach.
Erdoğan noted that Turkey also continued its efforts to ensure
Syria's territorial integrity and political union.
Commenting on developments in
Libya, where the administration fights militants affiliated with warlord
Khalifa Haftar, Erdoğan said Turkey's support to the country on the request of the
Libyan government prevented a possible civil war and fall of the capital Tripoli.
Asserting that
Turkey's contributions paved the way for hopes of a
political solution in Libya, Erdoğan said: "We will continue to be with the Libyan people in all fields, including training, military cooperation, energy, health, trade, and economy.
Referring to the developments in the
Eastern Mediterranean, Erdoğan said Turkey could not allow anyone to ignore legitimate Turkish rights in the region.
We have always been patient and calm regarding the
Eastern Mediterranean issue despite provocations of Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, Erdoğan said, adding Turkey was always open for negotiations as his country was confident that it was in a righteous position.
The Turkish leader also called on the EU to abandon its "strategic blindness," which he said was pushing
Ankara away from the EU and reiterated his call for organizing a
multinational conference including all littoral countries along with the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the
Eastern Mediterranean to resolve the dispute. He further noted that Turkey was encouraged by the discovery of 405 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea region and hopeful for new discoveries in the
Eastern Mediterranean.
The president also said the
Turkish administration could not remain silent while
Azerbaijan's territories were under occupation as both countries were bonded by blood whereas the
MINSK trio -- the US, France and Russia -- had not produced a concrete approach regarding the decades-long conflict.
Fed up with the trio's stalling efforts,
Azerbaijan took the matter into its own hands and stepped into action, according to Erdoğan, who welcomed
Baku's liberation of territories in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
