Gaza has become 'world's largest cemetery' for children and women, Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells UN General Assembly
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday urged the international community to stop Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as it did generations ago with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
"Israel's attitude has once again shown that it is essential for the international community to develop a protection mechanism for Palestinian civilians," Erdogan said in his address to the 79th UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
"Just as Hitler was stopped by the alliance of humanity 70 years ago, Netanyahu and his murder network must be stopped by the alliance of humanity."
Before his address, Erdogan expressed pleasure at seeing the representative for Palestine at the UN, in the place "he deserves among the member states, after lengthy struggles."
He added: "I wish this historic step to be the last stage on the way to Palestine's membership in the United Nations. I also invite other states, that have not yet done so, to recognize the state of Palestine as soon as possible and take their place on the right side of history at this very critical period."
Erdogan said he is the leader of a country that is not far from the tensions, but right in its “epicenter."
"Even if some feel uncomfortable, even if some will once again criticize us, I wish to speak out certain truths openly today, in the name of humanity, from the common rostrum of humanity," he said.
The president criticized the UN, which is struggling to fulfill its founding mission and is "gradually turning into a dysfunctional, unwieldy and inert structure."
"We witness that international peace and security are too important to be left to the arbitrariness of the privileged five," he added.
Erdogan has long pushed for reforms to the UN, often using the slogan “The world is bigger than five,” referring to the Security Council's unrepresentative membership.
"The most dramatic example of this is the massacre that has been going on in Gaza for 353 days," he stressed.
- 'Not only children; UN system also dying in Gaza'
Turning to the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip, Erdogan said more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since last Oct. 7, when Israel launched its relentless offensive.
More than 17,000 children have been the targets of Israeli bullets and bombs, he said.
The whereabouts of more than 10,000 Gazans, most of whom are children, are unknown, Erdogan said, adding that 172 journalists have been killed while trying to do their job under difficult conditions.
Humanitarian aid workers and more than 210 UN personnel, who rushed to the rescue of the people of Gaza struggling with hunger and thirst, have been killed, he added.
"By tearing down the Charter of the United Nations at the United Nations rostrum, they shamelessly challenged the whole world, all the conscientious people right from here, from this rostrum," he added.
The leaked images from the prisons that Israel has turned into "concentration camps indicate very clearly what kind of persecution we are facing," he said.
"As a result of Israel's attacks, Gaza has become the world's largest cemetery for children and women."
Hundreds of Gazan children have died so far because they were not able to find a bite of dry bread, a sip of water or a bowl of soup and they are still dying, said Erdogan.
"Not only children are dying in Gaza; the United Nations system is also dying, the truth is dying, the values that the West claims to defend are dying, the hopes of humanity to live in a fairer world are dying one by one," he stressed.
- 'Stop this cruelty, this barbarism'
"Are the ones in Gaza, the ones in the West Bank not human beings? The children in Palestine, do they not have the right to study, live, and play in the streets?" Erdogan asked.
The president urged the Security Council to prevent the "genocide" in Gaza and to put a "stop to this cruelty, this barbarism."
"What more are you waiting for to stop the massacre network that endangers also the lives of its own citizens along with the Palestinian people and drags the entire region into war for the sake of its political prospects?" he added.
He also criticized countries that "unconditionally" support Israel.
"For how long will you continue to bear the shame of looking on this massacre, of being its accomplices?" he asked.
While children are dying in Gaza, Ramallah and Lebanon, and babies are dying in incubators, Erdogan said the international community has also given a "very bad account of itself."
What is happening in Palestine is an "indicator of a huge moral breakdown," he added.
"I also want to hereby express a truth loud and clear.
"Ignoring basic human rights, the Israeli government is practicing ethnic cleansing, an overt genocide against a nation, a people, and occupying their territory step by step," he told the Assembly.
The only reason for Israel's aggression against the Palestinian people is the "unconditional support" of a handful of countries to Israel, Erdogan said, adding the countries that have an influence over Israel are "openly becoming accomplices of this massacre with the policy of run with the hare, hunt with the hounds."
"Those who are supposedly working for a cease-fire in the limelight continue to send weapons and ammunition to Israel behind the stage, so that it can continue its massacres. This is inconsistency and insincerity," he added.
- 'No more credit should be given to Israel's distraction moves'
Turning to the Gaza cease-fire and hostage deal proposal, Erdogan said the document has been "going back and forth" since May.
Despite the fact that the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, has repeatedly declared its acceptance of the proposal, he said the Israeli government has "very clearly indicated that it is the party that does not want peace by continuously hampering the process, constantly finding excuses, perfidiously killing the interlocutor it negotiated with at a time when the cease-fire was closest."
"There should be no more credit given to Israel's distraction and deception moves," he added.
Demanding an "immediate and permanent" cease-fire, hostage-prisoner exchange, uninterrupted humanitarian aid to the Gaza, Erdogan said Türkiye continues to maintain its humanitarian aid activities for Palestinians.
"With the amount of aid exceeding 60,000 tons, Türkiye is the country that sends the highest amount of aid to Gaza," he said.
Türkiye's conscience cannot be at peace until those who killed 41,000 victims are "held accountable for the crimes they committed, from the person who gives the order to the ones who pull the trigger, and drop the bomb," he said.
"The bill for the billions of dollars of damage at the destroyed, wiped out, demolished cities must and will definitely be compensated by the perpetrators," Erdogan stressed.
Reiterating that Ankara supports the lawsuit filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to ensure that "the crimes committed by Israel do not go unpunished," Erdogan said Türkiye will take all steps to ensure that justice is served in this case in which Ankara have applied for intervention.
"We will make every legal struggle to find justice for our daughter Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers during a peaceful protest in Nablus," he added.
Although there is an urgent need for a cease-fire in Gaza, Erdogan said the main issue is the "occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel," as he calling for an independent, sovereign and geographically contiguous Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
