President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the TRT World Forum 2026 in Istanbul
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the TRT World Forum 2026 in Istanbul.
“TENS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE IN THE GRIP OF WARS AND CONFLICTS”
“We are going through a tumultuous period when power competition is getting increasingly fiercer, rules are being disregarded, the rules-based system is suffering a major corrosion, and values are undergoing, so-to-speak, a landslide. Global governance systems prove to be inadequate and dysfunctional in the resolution of problems we are faced with. Today, all of the norms and principles, which the international system was built upon, are being trampled upon. We are all experiencing a structural crisis where the old is dying and the new is yet to be born. I believe that as people of reason and conscience, it is the shared responsibility of all of us to end this crisis through just and fair resolutions,” President Erdoğan stated.
Stressing that today’s problems cannot be resolved through yesterday’s prescriptions, President Erdoğan said: “We are all closely following the impasses of the current international system, which was designed by the owners of power and privilege of 81 years ago. Given the incidents taking place in different parts of the world, first and foremost our region, it is evident that the system has gone bankrupt. Currently, tens of millions of people are struggling to survive in the grip of wars, conflicts, instabilities, hunger and poverty. It has escalated to such a point that whicle oppression and evil have become normalized, those calling for peace and common sense have fallen into the minority. Look, right next to us, the greatest genocide of the modern times took place in Gaza. Since October 2023, 75,000 people, mostly children and women, have been brutally massacred in Israeli attacks in Gaza. 176,000 people have been wounded. This figure corresponds to nearly 10 times the number of the martyrs in the Srebrenica Genocide in 1995, which was also committed before the eyes of the entire world. Last year alone, 1,500 of our brothers and sisters have lost their lives in a single year. Nearly 5,500 Palestinians have been wounded in the same attacks. In Gaza, which has been turned into rubble, people, even today, are struggling to survive in homes that have been razed to the ground. Hospitals are suffering a shortage of fuel and equipment. Humanitarian aid is still being denied entry. Over two million civilians are obligated to live in makeshift tents under rudimentary circumstances that make those who see them ashamed of their humanity. Along with Gaza, the West Bank has also become a target of this brutality. The settle terrorism, which aims to displace Palestinians from their homelands in which they have been living for centuries, is getting more and more reckless with each passing day under the indifferent looks of the modern world.”
“WE ARE DOING OUR UTMOST FOR A PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF WARS AND CRISES”
Noting that international structures, whose duty is to safeguard peace, security and stability, remain a mere onlooker to the incidents unfolding in Gaza, as they did in the past in Rwanda, Srebrenica and many other places engulfed in bloodbath, President Erdoğan went onto say: “The Gaza Peace Agreement, whose signing we contributed to, is unfortunately not being implemented. The principle of pacta sunt servanda, the cornerstone of international relations, is not being put into practice. It is high time for everyone to see that no problem can be settled this way. Everyone must understand that this will only aggravate the climate of revenge and hatred. It is extremely striking and shameful that over 270 members of the press have been massacred during the Gaza genocide. Most of them were deliberate and targeted killings by the occupying power. Yet, when we take a look at the press freedom reports released by the so-called independent organizations, we see that Israel is still being given preferential treatment. Those who play tough when it comes to Türkiye turn into a paper tiger when it is about the genocidal network. No offense to anyone but this is the most banal form of hypocrisy. The credibility of these organizations, which allege to be an authority on press freedom, must also be questioned, just as much as that of the UN Security Council.”
President Erdoğan further stressed: “It is an unacceptable situation that the notion of press freedom is being employed as a stick against the countries and politicians who, even at the cost of paying a price, speak out against global injustices. We don’t accept this. We cannot tolerate that our country is being targeted just because of its principled and honorable stance, and that our country is being subjected to a flagrant injustice. I would like to make it clear that we will not give into perception operations that maliciously seek to defame and corner Türkiye. Let me underscore that as Türkiye, we have fully, not partially, devoted ourselves to building a fairer and freer world. We are doing our utmost for the peaceful resolution of the wars, crises and tragedies unfolding along the line from Palestine to Yemen, and Sudan to Ukraine.”
