Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke of “equal international status” for the Turkish Cypriots, declaring today the opening of the Antalya Diplomatic Forum organized by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Referring to the war in Gaza, he accused Israel of committing genocide, while asserting that Turkey is building mutually beneficial relations in the diplomatic field.
Specifically, referring to the Cyprus issue, the Turkish president stated: “We have intensified our efforts to ensure the sovereign equality and equal international status of the “Turkish Cypriot people”, which are their acquired rights”.
Regarding Israel’s war with Hamas, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that “not only children, women and civilians were brutally slaughtered in Gaza, but the faith of billions of people in the international system, in Justice and Law was also destroyed.”
“All together we found how incompetent and dysfunctional are all these structures that have been bringing us as an example for years telling us that we should trust and respect them,” he added.
“What is happening in Gaza is not a conflict, it is an attempt at genocide – because even wars have their own rules,” he said, adding: “The Turkish Republic is watching Israel’s brutality with deep concern. Turkey has no right to ignore any incident. We know the difficulties of such a mission today, when the voices of those who speak the truth are silenced. Nevertheless, we will continue to say what we know to be true, even if it upsets some people.”
At the same time, he argued that Turkey is now one of the three countries with the largest diplomatic network in the world. “In this way we managed to put our country in a position to take a key role in solving crises and conflicts, we made it a country whose attitude and behavior are closely monitored in every field,” he said.
According to the Turkish president, “today Turkey can now create mutually beneficial relations (Kazan-Kazan) with both the West and the East, adopt a fair stance in the crisis between Ukraine and Russia, be in a Customs Union with the European Union and develop trade relations with the whole world, reach out to the downtrodden and the needy without any discrimination, and, when its survival is threatened, emerge as an active, resilient, principled, conscientious and effective force, which can quickly take all kinds of measures.”
He also referred to Ankara’s initiatives in Central Asia and within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States, in order to “make”, as he said, “the Turkish world more and more powerful”.
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