Although Turkey continues its efforts for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, US support for Israel fuels the fire of humanitarian drama in the region. Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan underlined that the USA and Turkey could not agree on a ceasefire and drew attention to the point of understanding at a certain level. Fidan also announced the decision taken by Turkey regarding the management of the crisis. BakanFidan’s messages regarding the nuclear weapons output from Israel were also striking.
Minister Fidan made evaluations to the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television channel about Israel’s attacks in Gaza and the international efforts spent to stop them.
Stating that there was an atmosphere of normalization in the region before October 7 and that Turkey adopted a policy to contribute to the atmosphere of normalization in the region, Fidan said, “But after October 7, we saw that essentially nothing has changed in the Palestinian case, especially Gaza.” “It was not possible for us to act as if nothing was happening while the blood of nearly 13 thousand of our Palestinian brothers who were martyred in Turkey was evident.” said.
Noting that Turkey followed a two-stage policy of “declaring a ceasefire without delay and delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza”, Fidan said that they focused on ceasefires in the previous Gaza wars, but in this war they saw that if the two-state solution is not concentrated on along with the ceasefire, the wars will continue. told.
In this context, Fidan stated that very serious decisions were made in Riyadh and that serious progress was made in the decisions taken.
Regarding breaking the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, Fidan said, “As of now, Islamic countries have chosen to solve the problem by using all the diplomatic and humanitarian tools they have. Here, by using all the diplomatic tools we have, we are working hard to support the Palestinian cause outside the region, and to oppose Israeli oppression.” It is necessary to come together with countries from America, Africa, Europe and Asia Pacific at the United Nations and other platforms to put an end to Israel’s indiscriminate killing activity.The current phase is a phase that prefers the path of diplomacy. ” he said.
Fidan said that many different studies are ongoing regarding this issue, which may or may not be reflected in the press, and added:
“Islamic countries have come together now, there is an Action Group of 7 countries, this Action Group includes Turkey, Indonesia, Nigeria, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. As of next week, representatives of these countries and foreign ministers from various countries “We see that they will start to hold certain contacts in the capitals. On the other hand, as you know, in the decision taken at the summit in Riyadh, there is a call to break the siege.”
Noting that the 7-country Action Group is a group that will implement the joint summit decision taken by the member countries of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Riyadh, Fidan said, “As I said, its number one duty is to carry out lobbying activities on an international scale, especially to support Islamic countries and Arab countries.” “To share the views of the Cooperation Organization on this issue with the relevant countries and to create a common action platform. I believe that in doing this, great ideas and actions will emerge.”
TURKEY’S DECISION IS TO ACT JOINTLY WITH OTHER COUNTRIES
Fidan answered the question, “Why did Turkey act later than some countries in boycotting Israel and withdrawing its ambassador?” as follows:
“While managing this crisis, we made a principle decision as follows: Let’s take our actions together with other sister countries. In other words, rather than making and implementing decisions alone, we should come together with other Islamic countries, regional countries, even Latin American countries, African countries and, if possible, some European countries to make the decisions more effective.” Let’s take these decisions with the countries. Because although the decisions we take unilaterally will bring serious political relief, especially for our own people, we need to act collectively to have an effect on solving the problem. Therefore, we have put this issue on the agenda since the first Islamic Cooperation Executive Committee Extraordinary Meeting. “We brought it and we saw that various countries started to do this one by one, and we took this action and recalled our ambassador.”
Emphasizing that Turkey has no problem in taking unilateral steps and imposing sanctions, Fidan said, “What we are focusing on is which methodology would be more effective? You know, we have done this in the past after the Mavi Marmara incident, so Turkey has no problem in this regard. Especially our President’s stance, “The stance of our government and our people is very clear on this issue, so we have no problems in making these decisions.”
Stating that the biggest crisis, apart from the oppression in Gaza, is the silence of the Western world, especially America, about this oppression, Fidan said, “This is causing a major rupture in the Islamic world, the region and the rest of the world, and there are serious fault lines that this rupture will reveal.” .” said.
TURKEY IS TRYING TO CREATE A COMMON PLATFORM ON GAZA
Fidan answered the question about whether Turkey and the USA would lead a bloc similar to the economic, political and military boycott followed against Russia in the Ukraine war and what prevented this as follows:
“There are no obstacles. This is an issue that is on our agenda. As I said, we wanted to start the agenda first with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and then we will definitely evaluate and put it forward in a larger circle. Essentially, an implementation of this has been done, that is, As you know, hosted by our President’s wife, Mrs. Emine Erdoğan, guests were invited from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the rest of the world, Far Asia, heads of state, wives of heads of government gathered in Istanbul, this was the first attempt. .
But essentially, in the first stage, we started to create a common platform with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League, which are the common areas of the members of the Islamic world and the Arab world neighboring Gaza and Palestine, and after the consolidation there, Latin America, the African Union, the United Nations. “We will take all steps to create a broad solidarity platform with the remaining countries.”
THE ATTITUDE OF Türkiye AND THE USA TOWARDS THE CEASE-MADE IS DIFFERENT
Providing information about the meeting he had with his US counterpart Antony Blinken during his visit to Turkey, Fidan said, “Our stance is essentially as follows: We want a ceasefire to be implemented as soon as possible to stop this oppression and for aid to be brought in without interruption. Especially Gaza.” “We said that we do not accept that the issue of deporting the population of the United States and sending them to other places should be a policy. The issue that we cannot agree on with the Americans is that they definitely support Israel regarding the ceasefire, they do not want a ceasefire. But I think we have reached a point regarding the humanitarian ceasefire.” he said.
“ISRAEL’S NUCLEAR WEAPON THREAT INCREASES THE NUCLEAR ARMAS RACE”
Speaking about Israel’s threat to use nuclear weapons in Gaza and pointing out that this is “a secret that everyone knows”, Fidan said, “We see that Israel is developing its own nuclear capability by using the fact that it is not a party to the nuclear weapons proliferation agreement, and we are asking for help from America in this regard.” “We also know that it has great support from Europe, so it’s no secret.” said.
Fidan noted that “it is a big problem, considering some crazy Israeli politicians’ statements about using nuclear weapons” and said, “Israel’s continued possession of nuclear weapons will increase the race for nuclear weapons. This is not a situation that is in favor of the region and the world.” ” he said.
Israeli far-right Heritage Minister Eliyahu said in a radio program that using a nuclear bomb was one of the possibilities for Gaza. Following this statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended Eliyahu from cabinet meetings indefinitely.
Minister Fidan continued as follows:
“The region must either be completely free of nuclear weapons, or other countries will have to take steps to feel safer in this regard, so we need to find a solution to this. This is one of the important strategic issues that we have in front of us and that we must definitely solve, and we will continue to work on this issue.” .”
“Türkiye DOES NOT CONSIDE HAMAS AS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION”
Noting that Turkey has a single perspective on the post-war situation in Gaza, Fidan said:
“We frankly do not accept that the question of who will govern Gaza without a two-state solution is a correct question. Gaza was already governed before the war, it can continue to be governed now. Gaza has no problem with self-governing. Gaza’s problem is that it is kept under occupation and “Keeping it under fire, destroying its infrastructure, destroying its superstructure. We currently think that there is a problem not with the management of Gaza, but with its protection.”
Reiterating that Turkey does not recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization, Fidan said, “Our President also declared, I also declare, I said in previous press conferences, we do not recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization. Hamas is a terrorist organization operating within the Palestinian state system.” party. We are a country that recognizes the State of Palestine, and nearly 140 countries recognize it along with us. Therefore, we do not classify parties operating within any state as ‘a terrorist organization or not’. Hamas is a reality of Palestine, “It is a movement that emerged under the conditions of occupation. We think that when the occupation ends and Palestine normalizes, organizations such as Hamas will return to normal life.” said.
Touching on the issue of prisoner exchange, Fidan stated that Qatar has made a tremendous effort on this issue since the beginning of the crisis and that Turkey has done its best in this regard.
Fidan said that the Egyptian administration did its best regarding aid entries through the Rafah Border Gate, but they had some sensitivities. Stating that Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries have made serious initiatives on behalf of Egypt, Fidan added that Egypt is making a serious effort to bring humanitarian aid especially to El-Arish Port and let it in.
(AA)
