President Erdoğan delivered a speech during the meeting.
“Women and innocent children bear the brunt of wars”
Noting that the Middle East, which Türkiye is a part of, is going through turbulent and painful days, President Erdoğan said: “Wars and hot conflicts are, unfortunately, breaking out one after another, with women and innocent children bearing the brunt of them. Women and children form the majority of the over 72 thousand civilians brutally massacred by Israel in Gaza. It is likewise women and children who paid the heaviest price in the civil war that raged for 13.5 years in our neighbor Syria. Similarly, among the primary victims of the attacks targeting Iran, another neighbor of ours, are women and children. Over 165 innocent children were killed in an airstrike conducted against a school in Minab in the initial days of the war. Yet again, the primary victims of the bombardment and occupation policies Israel pursues in Lebanon have been women and children. Since March 2, 1.2 million Lebanese were displaced by Israeli attacks targeting civilian residential areas, with over 1.500 of our Lebanese brothers and sisters killed and 4.700 wounded. On the exact day of the declaration of the ceasefire, Israel brutally massacred 254 Lebanese people. Blinded by blood and hatred, the genocide network, disregarding all humanitarian values and knowing no rules and principles, continues to murder sinless kids, women and civilians.”
Touching upon the death penalty law Israel has adopted for Palestinian prisoners, President Erdoğan stated: “Is adopting a deathly penalty solely for Palestinian prisoners not called apartheid? Is this not instrumentalizing the law for racist fascism? Is there, in essence, any difference between Hitler’s monstrous policies against Jews and the decision the Israeli parliament adopted in a triumphant manner? Are these all not a new manifestation of the rejection, annihilation, oppression and political execution policies pursued against the Palestinian people? This is for sure discrimination and racism. This means enacting something even worse than the apartheid regime of South Africa that was abolished in 1994.”
President Erdoğan continued his remarks as follows: “No matter how disheartening the picture before us may be, we will never be pessimistic. We have not given up the struggle. We will not let the banner of struggle fall down, neither today nor tomorrow. We will continue to shout the truth, speaking out what is right even if it hurts, and stand for justice in every platform. I wholeheartedly believe that we can find solutions to oppression, discrimination and lawlessness if we act in unity and solidarity. I believe that if women, in particular, raise their voices, walls will come down, oppressors will lose, and the voice of truth and the rightful will be louder.”
