President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Extended Session held in Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana), the capital and second largest city of Kazakhstan. The meeting was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Uzbek President Shaukat Mirziyoyev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Tajik President Emomali Rahman, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Iranian Interim President Mohammad Mukbir, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming.
Erdoğan continued his statements as follows:
“40 Thousand Innocents Lost Their Lives”
The theme determined for the summit, “Strengthening Multilateral Dialogue in the Quest for Sustainable Peace and Development,” was extremely appropriate. We are going through a period when the pillars of the rule-based international system are shaking. Challenges such as terrorism, Islamophobia and xenophobia, irregular migration, climate change, energy and food security, and disruptions in supply chains are increasing the intensity of the geopolitical shocks. The most recent and painful example of this is exhibited in the occupied Palestinian territories, especially in Gaza. As a result of the indiscriminate attacks in Gaza, approximately 40 thousand innocent people lost their lives. Approximately 90 thousand Palestinians were injured. The ruins under which more than 16 thousand innocent children lost their lives are essentially the wreckage of an international system that has lost its legitimacy.
“Israel Must Be Stopped with International Pressure”
To end this destruction, Israel must be stopped and forced to accept a permanent ceasefire. To do this, the pressure on the Israeli government must be increased and maintained. Of course, there are principled countries that raise their voices for global justice with all their sincerity and effort, without falling into pessimism in the face of all these crises that the international order is facing. As in Turkey, we are constantly drawing attention to the weaknesses of the current international order. We are working, despite all obstacles, to build an effective and all-embracing international system that eliminates global injustices, addresses economic inequalities, produces peace, security, stability and prosperity, and is not the case for the strong but for the right. Our aim is to establish a peace belt in our region and beyond with an entrepreneurial diplomacy approach that focuses on people and human values.
