Humanity is being killed in Gaza, Palestine: Erdoğan

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on May 19 criticized those who remain silent to the oppression of Palestinians by Israel and said it was humanity that was killed in Palestinian territory.

“It is not the children who died in Jerusalem or Gaza, but humanity itself. The houses destroyed collapsed on humanity,” he said, addressing the Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day celebrations.

Referring to the U.S. accusations that the Turkish president made “anti-Semitic” remarks in his criticism of Israeli strikes in Gaza, he said, “They tell us ‘Erdoğan should not speak this way. What to do, clap? Where we see the persecution, we will shout in the highest manner.”

He stressed that it is a misconception that “the strong is always right.”

“Turkey exists to build a world where we believe the righteous are strong,” the president stated.

“Today, cruelty, conflict, grudge and hatred abound in most of the places where people lived peacefully under the umbrella of justice and security of our ancestors,” Erdoğan said.

Turkey will always defend the rights of Palestinians, whatever the price might be, he said.

“If a price has to be paid to resist the persecution and protect the oppressed, we will never hesitate to pay it,” he stated.

International institutions and states preaching democracy, human rights, law, justice, freedom and security are watching this” persecution” in silence, Erdoğan said.

“If we remain silent to what is happening in Jerusalem today, we know that it will be the turn of our other holy cities tomorrow,” the president said.

The command of Turkey’s civilization and its ancestors to them is “to oppose the cruel, but to take care of the oppressed,” he said, noting that together with the young generation, they would continue to oppose the persecution in Palestine all over the world.