Director of Communications Altun: "We will continue to advocate for Palestine on every international platform"
Presidency's Director of Communications Fahrettin Altun gave an interview to the Stav Magazine published in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the assessment he made regarding Israel's recent attacks on Palestine, Director of Communications Fahrettin Altun said, "We will continue to advocate for Palestine on every international platform. We will do whatever it takes to put an end to Israel's unlawful attitude. Our struggle will go on until Palestine is completely liberated."
Let us begin with Israel's latest attacks on Palestine as the most pressing issue on the agenda. Israel, which has tyrannised Palestinian Muslims for years by oppressing and attacking them, inadmissibly attacked the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Laylat al-Qadr. It then started bombing Palestinian towns, starting with Gaza. Can we get your insights on this attack?
Israel, which does not recognise any humanitarian and sacred values, has once again demonstrated that it is a terror state. It launched cowardly assaults on our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Al-Quds, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Gaza during a holy month for Muslims. Hundreds of Palestinians, including a large number of children, were martyred. I once again condemn the reckless attacks that break our hearts and cast a pall upon the spirit for Eid.
We were enraged and saddened by the image of ferocity painted by Israel's terror, but we did not sit idle with our hands bound. Under the leadership of our President, Türkiye has long been a leading advocate and supporter of the righteous cause of Palestine. In the face of recent attacks, we have reacted in the strongest way from the beginning. We maintain our firm stance at every level, both as a state and as a nation. We are attempting to mobilise all relevant international organisations, most notably the United Nations and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, in order to support Palestine against Israel's attacks. Our President has pursued intensive diplomacy traffic by holding phone conversations with more than 20 countries ranging from Palestine to Russia, Qatar to Pakistan and Kuwait to Algeria. He invited them to act together to stop the attacks immediately and to give a strong and deterrent lesson to Israel. We will continue to advocate for Palestine on every international platform. We will do whatever it takes to put an end to Israel's unlawful attitude. Our struggle will go on until Palestine is completely liberated. With our President's "World is bigger than 5" manifesto, we will continue to shout the truths in the face of Israel, the world's biggest actor in the oppression order, and its supporters.
In the last week of April, however, a new agenda was formed regarding the events of 1915. What are your thoughts on US President Biden's statements? Why did Biden take this step?
Regarding the events of 1915, US President Joe Biden used expressions that were far from historical realities, lacked foundation, and contradicted the truth. Attempts to achieve political gain by distorting historical events are disreputable for us. We are well aware that Biden used these expressions, which strained our bilateral ties and did not fit into being an ally due to domestic political showdown and lobbies' pressure. I would like to emphasise once again that these expressions, which are intended to promote the unfounded aspersions of the Armenian diaspora, are presumptuous, unlawful, and invalid. This unfortunate statement also saddened our Armenian citizens living in Türkiye. As a matter of fact, the Armenian Patriarch of Türkiye, Sahak Maşalyan, and the Chairman of the Union of Armenian Foundations, Bedros Şirinoğlu, have explicitly stated that these debates, which have been attempted to be fuelled by the United States, the European Union, and other nations, are far from well-intentioned, and that they have been residing on these territories in peace for centuries.
Throughout the history of the Turkish nation, there has never been an event that has gloomed the consciences and been a disgrace to us. However, if you look at the history of those who make these charges against us, you will see that they are all recognised as having committed crimes against humanity. Türkiye is sure of itself in this regard. For many years, we have stated unequivocally that we can open our archives to historians and researchers. Those who advocate unfounded Armenian claims, on the other hand, are not bold enough to accept our invitation. To tell the truth, the West's indifference to Türkiye's invitation reveals its hypocrisy and double standards through its approach to the Armenian question.
What is the true story behind the events of 1915? What happened? Why do Armenians make these claims?
Actually, April 24, 1915, is a date when Armenian organisations such as Dashnak, Hunchak, and Ramgavar were closed down, and 235 of their administrators were arrested for allying with the Ottoman Empire's enemies and carrying out separatist acts when the Ottoman Empire was at war. The relocation and resettlement law was not enacted on this date, and no lives were lost. The relocation and resettlement law was introduced on May 27 and came into effect on June 1. It was intended to take a measure against a possible rebellion and massacres by Armenian gangs against vulnerable Muslim people in Anatolia. Thousands of Muslims, Turks, and Kurds had already been slaughtered by Armenian gangs up until that point. They slaughtered vulnerable civil Turks and Kurds in Anatolia, as well as Circassians in the Caucasus. There are documents in the archives that show Armenian gangsters boasting about their massacres. While speaking in light of documents and information, designing our policies as Türkiye, we anticipate the same stance from those making allegations.
Due to the circumstances of the time, outbreaks and public security problems arose during the relocation of Armenians. Aside from these reasons, there were others who died in clashes with security forces. There was no such thing as genocide, as was claimed.
What were Armenian citizens' statuses and positions during the Ottoman era?
Anatolia was geography in which people of various ethnicities and beliefs coexisted peacefully during the Ottoman era and prior periods, as well as today. Armenians, like all peoples, were able to exercise their religious freedoms to the fullest extent possible in this geography. Many Armenian citizens can be found in the Ottoman state administration. Despite all of the opportunities and seats offered by the Ottoman state, taking courage from Tsarist Russia, the Armenians turned into gangs during uprisings of minorities encouraged by Westerners and launched massacres against Muslims within the Ottoman state's borders.
Although mass graves of Muslim Turks and Kurds massacred by Armenians can be found in various parts of Anatolia today, there is not a single Armenian mass grave to be found within Anatolia's borders.
During the Ottoman era, Armenians experienced some of their most peaceful, comfortable, and prosperous days, perhaps ever in their history. Our forefathers granted them peace and prosperity that they may not have been able to find in their own country, even today. We may use even today's Armenians living in Türkiye as a point of reference for this. None of them has the desire to leave Türkiye and go to Armenia.
For several years, Türkiye has proposed that these issues be researched through the archives. What is the essence of the proposal, and why has it never been implemented?
Today, we are confronted with forces attempting to stir up animosity by using lies and distortions from the history of the Turkish and Armenian peoples, who coexisted peacefully for centuries. As Türkiye, we have offered to open our archives to unveil the truth and have this truth serve the greater good, humanity and peace. Our offer to have the matter investigated by impartial historians, stripped of politics and ideological grounds, solely for the purpose of serving peace and humanity still stands.
As I previously said, our drive to uncover the truth is motivated by the truth itself, not by political gain. Our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is so confident in the truth and our theses that he has taken genuine steps to have the subject researched. He has stressed that our archives are accessible to historians and researchers on all occasions. From 2005 to the present, he has been publishing a letter of condolences for Armenians who lost their lives, thanks to his self-confidence fuelled by the truth.
Who gets bothered by having these claims, which are unrelated to the truth and are only fictionalised for political motives, investigated? The lobbies that profit from these claims, the imperialist forces that are disturbed by the region's citizens living in peace...
We also know why they refuse to participate in the archives' research. Whatever the case may be, we will keep working for the truth and refuting the Armenian theses one by one. Through the international conferences we hold and the efforts we carry out, we will contribute to a correct interpretation of history by scientifically analysing the events of 1915. Türkiye's archives are open to everyone who wants to contribute to peace and stability.
Türkiye has launched operations in northern Iraq. What is the objective of these operations?
Any operation Türkiye conducts against terrorist organisations within and outside its borders has, as its ultimate goal, the security of our country, the peace of our citizens, and the stability of our region. Since 2015, Türkiye has entered a new phase in its fight against terrorism, beginning to remove threat elements inside their own caves. In this direction, operations against terrorist organisations inside and outside our borders were initiated, and terrorist organisations were dealt heavy blows.
Our most recent operations called Claw-Lightning and Claw-Thunderbolt are also directed at eliminating the terrorist threats against Türkiye in the same vein.
Türkiye will never allow a terrorist state tried to be established along its southern borders. We will never tolerate terrorist organisations or terrorism in our region, and we will continue to battle these blood-shedding terrorists and those who keep their strings by using our rights stemming from international law until terror is eradicated. Using our domestic and national arms and ammunition in our operations is another source of pride for us.
Because of the Syrian war, Türkiye has been hosting millions of refugees for years. What has been accomplished, and how much money has been expended so far?
According to UN data, Türkiye is the country that hosts the most refugees and provides the most humanitarian aid in relation to its national income.
Currently, our country is accommodating nearly five million displaced people, with 3.7 million of them being Syrians. The Republic of Türkiye provides refugees with the same opportunities that it provides to its citizens. Western countries, which house only a small proportion of the refugees who were welcomed with open arms by Türkiye, condemn them to unhealthy, flimsy shelters.
We have provided education to 685 thousand Syrian school-aged children. We have increased the schooling rate of Syrian children from 30% to 63%. Nearly 35 thousand Syrians have had the opportunity to pursue undergraduate and graduate education as a result of our efforts. We made sure that Syrian and other immigrant children were educated in the same classrooms as our own. We established Migrant Health Centres in areas where Syrians were concentrated in order to facilitate access to health services.
Our integration efforts for Syrians are continuing in all areas. Especially in provinces with large Syrian populations, we are conducting social and cultural events. Furthermore, we promote Syrian employment by methods such as lowering work permit fees for employers who hire Syrians. In every province, we have opened language and vocational courses for refugees. Many Syrians have now reached a point in our country where they can stand on their own. Our humanitarian assistance to Syrians is also continuing uninterruptedly. According to UN criteria, Türkiye's expenditure for refugees has now surpassed 40 billion dollars.
Europe also pledged support to Türkiye on this matter. To what extent was it fulfilled?
Türkiye has always been left alone when it comes to Syrian refugees. The European Union has committed to giving only 3 + 3 billion Euros to Türkiye, which has spent more than 40 billion dollars with its own national assets. However, even this has not been completely fulfilled. The international community has left Türkiye alone in terms of refugees. The European Union and our so-called allies do not share the political and humanitarian responsibilities of refugees.
We have not even received a positive response to our call to settle the Syrians in our country, in the safe zone we are going to establish in the North of Syria, and Türkiye made the area safe with military operations. Syrians were able to settle in the area after briquette houses were built in the area.
With the number of refugees Türkiye has taken in, it is teaching a lesson in humanity right now. However, some segments are criticising Türkiye for this. How is this contradiction possible?
Since we have grown accustomed to the contradictions of Western countries and their double standards towards Türkiye, we do not get surprised by this anymore. Criticising Türkiye, which hosts over five million refugees, is just disgraceful for the western countries that take in only a limited number of refugees and even determine them by their educational and professional background.
They have often included Türkiye, the incidents in Türkiye and President Erdoğan in the local press in other countries. They have even used Turkish headlines and cancelled convention centres during election times. Yet, they criticise Türkiye for interfering with other countries elections. How do you construe that?
Our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan carries the banner for justice and the truth for the whole world and bears himself as the voice of the helpless. The ones who want the injustice and the system of oppression perpetuated see our President as a threat to themselves. This is what lies behind the discomfort. And so, they attack with all that they got. No matter what they do, we will not back down. We know how precious the hope, the faith and the confidence that the oppressed people and people with common sense from all over the world have for our President are. With this responsibility, under his leadership, we will continue to stand by the oppressed, restoring a more just and active structure in the international system and be the voice of the truth.
Türkiye has managed to get almost all social media platforms to open an office in Türkiye. How did they manage to do it, and why is it important for the country?
Türkiye is a country that protects and fights for sovereignty rights in all spheres, including the digital world. Unfortunately, the global social media platforms had fallen into the habit of thinking themselves superior to states. However, this habit differs from state to state.
As a result of certain incidents, we have discovered that these social media platforms are not, in matters pertaining to Türkiye, mediums of democracy and free speech, as they claim to be. We have witnessed that these platforms did not show the tolerance to the representatives of our nation as they did to terrorist organisations and immoral groups. And, in response, Türkiye has issued a regulation emphasising that we will not tolerate digital fascism. While adopting these regulations, we have faced awful pressure domestically and internationally. But we stood firm and refused to make compromises. The determined stance we have shown paid off, and social media platforms started appointing representatives one after another.
It is among our prioritised duties to protect the rights and remedies of our citizens. We want to protect our people from extremisms and our children and youth from deviances of any kind.
Penal sanctions such as advertisement bans and narrowing the internet traffic bandwidth have been effective in appointing representatives by these companies.
It is essential to take a step and get a favourable result about this. Because media, social media and digital world instruments that are uncontrollable or in control of other focal points could result in a survival problem for countries, morality, corruption and violence issues for societies.
The whole world is fighting against the coronavirus. This fight highlights two things. One is health, and the other one is economy. How successful has Türkiye been in this fight?
During the Covid-19 Pandemic, the world has been through and is still going through a crucial test. In this period, even when the healthcare systems in developed countries failed, Türkiye has been successfully carrying it out with timely and effective measures in both healthcare and economic aspects under the leadership of our President. The science-based steps taken and the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board formed at the very beginning of our fight have been a guide for decision-makers. Since the pandemic reached Türkiye, comprehensive studies have been carried out in every field. We did not allow any of our citizens to suffer, and we carried out the largest-scale evacuation operation in the history of the Republic to bring our citizens from all over the world back to the country. In the process, we ensured the return of our citizens from 142 different countries to our country. We brought 368 infected citizens to Türkiye by air ambulance.
During this period, in the field of healthcare, we opened two pandemic hospitals with 1008 beds each and 16 giant city hospitals in a short period of 45 days. We started mass production of national and domestic ventilators. Of these, we have succeeded in exporting four thousand ventilators to 20 countries. According to different needs, we provided aid not only to our own citizens but also to a total of 157 countries, 44 in Africa, 43 in Europe, 33 in Asia, 22 in America, and 15 in Oceania. We have become one of the countries that conduct the most vaccine studies globally, and we are close to concluding our domestic vaccine production efforts.
During this period of global recession, the Turkish economy has also stood firm. With a growth performance of 5.9 per cent in the last quarter of 2020, Türkiye became the second most growing country in the world despite the Covid-19 pandemic. As Türkiye, we have quickly taken all our measures in the field of economy as well as in the field of healthcare. We have implemented preventive measures in many sectors with the Economic Stability Shield package. We have put forward numerous measures and supports to eliminate the adverse effects of the pandemic on work-life and social life. In this context, the total amount of resources that we transfer directly to citizens through the Social Protection Shield covering each and every one of our people in all processes ranging from individual to family, from family to society, has exceeded 53 billion TL as of March 1, 2021. Many incentives, supports, grants and aid practices have been implemented in this process, ranging from short-term employment allowances to the prohibition of dismissals, from cash wage support to unemployment benefits, from normalisation support to compensatory work, from rapid return-to-work incentives to employment supports, from the postponement of insurance premiums to SSI debt restructuring, from the rearrangement of pensions to the implementation of incapacity benefits within the scope of Covid-19, from the project to accommodate the homeless to the National Solidarity Campaign of We Are Self-Sufficient, Türkiye.
We have given 48 million TL in funding to 63 projects of the public sector, private sector, universities, and non-governmental organisations as part of the Fight against Covid-19 and Resilience Program. We are successful in combating the pandemic because we implement proactive, versatile and effective policies with the coordination and management capacity provided by the presidential system of government.
The most mentioned issue in relations between Türkiye and Bosnia and Herzegovina is the economy. Do you think economic cooperation is at a sufficient level? What is needed to make it better?
Türkiye has always valued its relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina and considers Bosnia and Herzegovina one of the most prominent countries in its heart's geography. With reciprocal high-level visits, this relationship is deepening with each passing day.
There is no doubt that the economic aspect is significant in our relations. With the entry into force of the free trade agreement, the bilateral trade volume has increased by more than nine times, reaching 650 million dollars in 2020. Without a doubt, the two countries' potential is many times greater than this level, and the target has been set to increase trade volume to one billion dollars in a short period of time.
In order to advance economic cooperation, a series of agreements focused on economic and commercial cooperation were signed during the visit of the Presidential Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Türkiye on March 16, 2021.
Türkiye contributes to Bosnia and Herzegovina's stability and development efforts in a variety of ways. Türkiye also has a determined political will to expand bilateral cooperation in areas such as energy, healthcare, defence, tourism, agriculture, and animal husbandry.
There is a subject that has been discussed recently in the Balkans, and that is the non-paper purportedly from Slovenia, which discusses the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina's lands. What is Türkiye's view on Bosnia and Herzegovina's territorial integrity?
Türkiye is in favour of Bosnia and Herzegovina's political unity and territorial integrity. We attach great importance to the peace and stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated at different times, Türkiye will support all efforts to ensure the peace, prosperity and development of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This document, which contains provisions such as splitting Bosnia and Herzegovina, the annexation of Republika Srpska, one of Bosnia and Herzegovina's two entities, to Serbia, and the union of Kosovo with Albania, is unacceptable.
The danger that such discussions pose for the region and Europe is self-evident. Such initiatives, which can only serve to create new crises, should definitely be avoided. The region needs not new crises but initiatives that will reinforce peace and stability.
In the non-paper in question, Türkiye is mentioned as well. It is claimed that Türkiye exploited the void in Bosnia and Herzegovina and filled it, and the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina could be swayed away from the EU path because of Türkiye's influence. What is your evaluation of this?
When the issue was raised during Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu's visit to Slovenia, the Slovenian authorities stressed that they did not accept this letter. It is apparent that this document, which has been put forward and which no one has accepted, does not serve the peace and stability of the region.
However, it is worth emphasising that Türkiye supports the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, peace and prosperity of the country's citizens. Just as Türkiye does not interfere with the internal affairs of any country, it does not allow interference in its own internal affairs.
Finally, Türkiye is both loved and criticised by a segment in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For instance, the same segment criticises Türkiye both when it assists in combating the pandemic and when it does not (Why does Türkiye not send vaccines?). What is your view of this, and what is Türkiye's objective and position in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
Türkiye's relations and policy with Bosnia and Herzegovina are not policies that can be guided by the criticism of certain segments. We care very much about our historical and cultural ties with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Everyone is aware of the special place that our Bosnian brothers and sisters hold in the heart of the Turkish nation. We regard all the peoples of this geography as our friends, with whom we have coexisted for centuries, without distinguishing between Bosniaks, Albanians, Serbs, Croats, and will again cooperate in all areas in the future.
