Turkey continues to support Palestine’s rightful struggle: FM

ISTANBUL

Turkey will continue to lend a support to Palestine’s legitimate struggle, Turkey’s top diplomat has said, as a senior Turkish delegation was scheduled to hold talks with their Israeli counterparts for the normalization of ties between the two states.

“We must keep the problems of our Palestinian brothers and sisters living in the occupied territories on the world’s agenda. As Turkey, during our [Organisation of Islamic Cooperation] OIC Summit Term Presidency, we pioneered efforts to protect the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian civilians,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in a video message on the occasion of the OIC’s human rights commission’s visit to Turkey on Feb. 16.

“We have taken important steps in this regard at the U.N. We will continue to support the legitimate struggle of the brotherly Palestinian people,” he added.

Turkey frequently reminds that its support to Palestine will continue at a moment when it exerts efforts to normalize ties with Israel. A delegation led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s chief foreign policy adviser, İbrahim Kalın, is in Palestine to hold talks with President Mahmoud Abbas and their Israeli counterparts. Kalın’s talks with Israeli officials will focus on Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Turkey on March 9 and 10.

“There is a lot to do together for us for the protection of the rights of the Muslims in the world. All Muslim countries have a responsibility to support our brothers and sisters. In particular, we need to seek solutions together to problems such as the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots and the deprivation of the basic human rights of the Turkish minority in Greece,” Çavuşoğlu noted.

It’s also very important that all the Muslim countries exert efforts to defend the rights of the Uighur Turks and Rohingya Muslims as well as all the Muslims suffering from difficulties in the world, he said.

Çavuşoğlu reiterated that rising populist moves in the world, particularly in Western Europe, fuel violence against the Muslims and some countries are seeking to legitimize anti-Islam feelings through legal steps and rhetoric.

“In many European cities, even in this age, building mosques or keeping existing mosques open is a serious matter. The Christchurch attack in New Zealand on March 15, 2019 showed that Muslims are not safe anywhere in the world,” Çavuşoğlu added.