Erdoğan calls for more countries to recognize state of Palestine

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has urged more countries to recognize Palestine as a state amid ongoing Israeli military actions in Gaza and Lebanon.

“In this environment where international organizations tasked with ensuring peace and security are ineffective, recognizing the state of Palestine has a greater meaning and importance,” Erdoğan said at a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart, Alexander Stubb, on Oct. 1.

The two leaders met earlier in the Turkish capital Ankara to discuss Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, the war in Ukraine and other regional issues.

“Our stance against Israel’s unjust and unlawful occupation and pursuit of annexation should be the primary duty of all states and international organizations,” Erdoğan added, calling on countries that have yet to recognize Palestine to do so.

In recent months, Spain, Ireland, Norway, Slovenia and Armenia have recognized Palestine as a state, in a move that infuriated Tel Aviv, which vowed to take measures against these countries.

The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados have also extended recognition.

Erdoğan also renewed his call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, expressing doubt that Israel would agree but highlighting Türkiye's ongoing mediation efforts.

“If we can achieve a result with the preliminary work that our ministers will do, we will continue the mediation efforts,” he said.

For his part, Stubb reiterated his support for a two-state solution.

"While we accept that Israel has the right to defend and protect itself, that it has the right to ensure its own security, we also believe that it must abide by international law," he said.

"The human tragedy happening in Gaza is so great, and now we are starting to see the same thing in Lebanon."

The Finnish president also emphasized Türkiye’s role as a "diplomatic bridge" between the West and the East.

"I think Türkiye's role in a multipolar world is more important than ever," he stated.

In August, Stubb said Finland’s recognition of a Palestinian state was "a matter of time" and that the right time would be picked strategically to promote peace in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, European, Arab and Islamic nations have launched an initiative to strengthen support for a Palestinian state and its institutions, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told The Associated Press last week.

"There is a growing consensus in the international community from Western countries, from Arab countries, from the Global South, that we need to establish a Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian government, a Palestinian state — and the Palestinian state has to be recognized," he said.

Norway is the guarantor of the 1993 Oslo Accords, hailed as a breakthrough in the decades-long conflict between Arabs and Jews, which created the Palestinian Authority and set up self-rule areas.

Now, 149 of the U.N.’s 193 member nations have recognized a Palestinian state. Eide called on the remaining 44 countries to do so and allow Palestine to become a full member of the U.N.