Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at the Conference on the Future of Palestine.
Here are the key points from Erdoğan's speech:
"We consider it very important that the Palestinian issue is discussed and addressed in all its aspects, especially during this critical period. Our conference, which brings together politicians, academics, activists, and those dedicated to the Palestinian cause, will hopefully allow for an in-depth discussion of the issue under three main topics. I would like to thank all the participants in advance for their contributions, ideas, suggestions, and evaluations.
The attacks that Israel launched on Gaza on October 7 last year once again brought the Palestinian issue to the forefront of global attention. The massacres that have claimed the lives of nearly 50,000 innocent people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and which continue to this day, have drawn attention to the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people. Israel's genocide policy, which has now extended to Lebanon, has also revealed the true face of Zionism to humanity. In this process, we have all witnessed firsthand how the Zionist lobby controls global powers and systems, dominating the economy, trade, media, the film industry, all branches of art, academia, universities, and even, in some countries, the state and both military and civilian bureaucracy.
We have also shamefully observed how international organizations, including the United Nations Security Council, have become utterly powerless in the face of Israel's arrogance. Human rights organizations and globally renowned media outlets, which normally champion human rights, democracy, and freedom of expression, have fallen silent when it comes to Palestine—when it comes to the rights of innocent children brutally killed in Gaza, or the rights of the oppressed in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. We have all witnessed how they chose to turn a blind eye, especially when it involved the massacre of children as young as 1 or 2 years old by sniper bullets.
All the values the West has advocated for years—freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and freedom of expression and the press—were swiftly set aside. We have seen many scenes that shame our shared humanity. Journalists were shot on live broadcasts. Hospitals, mosques, schools, and churches were bombed. Civilians waiting in line for aid were bombed as well.
In Gaza, Lebanon, it is not only children, women, elderly, civilians dying, but conscience of humanity, shared legacy of thousands of years.
'How much longer will the UN Security Council stand by, watch our region turn into sea of blood, civilians in Gaza be burned alive?'
Türkiye is the only state that has shown strongest reaction to massacre in Gaza, beyond that, has taken concrete measures against Israel.
'How can UN, which does not protect rights of its own staff, defend rights of others?'
We witnessed how human rights organizations, and global media outlets play the role of three monkeys when it comes to the rights of innocent children killed in Gaza.
Palestinians have been enduring this oppression for decades, and Israel's policies of occupation, destruction, execution continued uninterrupted for 76 years.
We have followed with embarrassment as UN Security Council, and international organizations have been completely powerless in face of Israel's impudence'.
