President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is heading to New York this weekend to address the 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly, where he is expected to call for justice for Palestine, especially Gaza, under Israeli attacks.
The assembly, where heads of state from superpowers to micronations make their voices heard before millions through live broadcasts, will host Erdoğan for the 14th time.
The Turkish leader has repeatedly highlighted the need for reform in the world body with his motto of “the world is bigger than five,” referring to members of the U.N. Security Council where countries other than superpowers or in Europe have no visible power.
Similarly, in his speech scheduled for Tuesday, the first day of the assembly, Erdoğan will call for Palestine’s full membership in the U.N. and recognition by more nations while urging the international community to increase its pressure on Israel as its brutal offensive in the Gaza Strip nears its first anniversary.
He will stress that an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital is vital for peace and stability.
Türkiye has been a fervent critic of Israel, with Erdoğan often comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, accusing Tel Aviv of committing genocide and criticizing Western nations for backing Israel.
In May, Türkiye suspended trade with Israel, citing its assault on Gaza, and in August, formally applied to join South Africa’s initiative to have Israel tried for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Erdoğan will be urging world nations to support the case to hold Israel accountable for its “crimes against humanity.”
‘Leadership foresight’
In what has been called “leadership foresight,” Erdoğan in his 2019 address to the U.N. General Assembly, had warned that Israel was looking to “take what’s left of Palestine” and lambasted the world body’s ineffectiveness in realizing decisions taken against Israel over its violations in Palestine.
Holding a map of changing Palestinian territories since 1947, Erdoğan argued how Palestine shrank as Israel expanded throughout the decades, coming to a point where “Palestine all but doesn’t exist and it’s all just Israel.”
“Israel will not be satiated,” he told the assembly. “There are all the U.N. resolutions taken about Israel, but they are not implemented. So, what good is the United Nations? If we are not effective with the decisions we take under this roof, where will justice concentrate? That’s where our problem lies.”
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed over 41,000 Palestinians while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
Türkiye has also sounded the alarm that Israel will move on to its next target in the region once it crushes the Palestinian opposition for its expansionist policies.
Following pager blasts in Lebanon blamed on Israel and continued bombing of southern Lebanon and Syria, Erdoğan has warned that Israel may set its sights on other regional countries and that Ankara has to be vigilant against the Netanyahu administration’s expansionist moves that will further escalate into a larger conflict for the Middle East.
Call for Cyprus
As he did at last year’s assembly, Erdoğan will again invite the international community to recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ (TRNC) independence and forge diplomatic, political and economic ties with it.
TRNC has been internationally isolated since declaring independence from the Greek Cypriot administration in the south in 1983 after Türkiye’s military intervention to protect Turkish Cypriots from a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island.
The Greek Cypriot administration was admitted to the European Union in 2004, the same year they thwarted a U.N. plan to end the longstanding dispute. Turkish Cypriots decry a U.N. and EU embargo on TRNC and the forced federation-based system on the island. Both TRNC and Türkiye insist on a two-state solution.
On the summit’s sidelines, Erdoğan will meet fellow state heads and representatives to discuss critical topics that have dominated the international agenda, including Gaza.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who has personally pursued an intense diplomatic push to facilitate a cease-fire in Gaza, will be accompanying Erdoğan to New York, too.
He will attend a third meeting of the Gaza contact group, founded in November last year at the extraordinary joint summit of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
