Erdogan: The past year was the bloodiest period in 30 years, Turkish president says at UN General Assembly
In remarks to the UN General Assembly as the fourth speaker, Erdogan laments Mahmoud Abbas’s absence, calls for Palestine recognition and UN reform, and urges regional cooperation.
Turkish President Erdogan, speaking at the UN General Assembly, described the past year as the bloodiest in 30 years, citing more than 60 wars and about 250,000 deaths, and claimed Gaza has suffered severe humanitarian crises. He called for UN reform, a Turkey-Pakistan-Saudi security bloc, stronger pressure on Israel to rebuild Gaza, and recognition of Palestine based on 1967 borders. He also urged protection of freedom of navigation, recognition of Northern Cyprus, and progress toward peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, while stressing Libya’s stability and criticizing European hijab bans as an assault on women's rights.
IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency) reports that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the first day of his address as the fourth speaker at the 81st UN General Assembly, described the last 12 months as one of the bloodiest periods in the past 30 years. He cited more than 60 wars and conflicts—from Gaza to Ukraine and Russia, Myanmar, Darfur, Iran and Lebanon—saying about 250,000 people had died. Erdogan claimed that in the past three years about 74,000 Gazans have fallen victim to what he called Israeli state terrorism, and that over 70 percent of Gaza’s hospital generators have failed due to fuel shortages, adding that Gaza is now the world’s largest graveyard for children and has the highest number of amputated children. He also noted that 1,500 Gazans have been killed since a ceasefire. The Turkish president argued that the United Nations can no longer fulfill its peacekeeping mission and urged reform, criticizing a system in which the will of more than 190 members is dominated by five permanent members as unfair.
Erdogan proposed a regional security bloc among Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to address regional problems from within the region and urged greater pressure on Israel to begin rebuilding Gaza, expressing hope that Palestine would be established on the borders of 1967. He referred to recent attacks on ships in the Black Sea and said freedom of navigation in the Hormuz Strait must be preserved. He urged recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and voiced hope for a durable peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, warning that excluding Turkey from Europe’s security architecture would not make the continent stronger or safer. He emphasized that maintaining stability in Libya is a priority and characterized bans on hijabs in some European schools as an assault on a fundamental right of women.