AK Party to host conference on future of Palestine
AK Party vice chair for foreign affairs Zafer Sırakaya speaks at a news conference in Ankara, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AA Photo)


The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will hold a convention on the future of Palestine, a party official said Friday.

"We will be holding the Future of Palestine Conference on Oct. 15," Zafer Sırakaya, the party's vice chair for foreign affairs, told reporters at AK Party headquarters.

Stating that guests from abroad, including Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, will also attend, Sırakaya said the role of international law in the future of Palestine will also be discussed during the event, to be held in the capital Ankara.

He added that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, also the ruling AK Party chair, will also attend.

Decrying the failure of both the U.N. and humanity in the situation in Gaza, Sırakaya said it is "extremely important and valuable to ensure a cease-fire in Gaza quickly, to realize the exchange of hostages and prisoners as soon as possible, and to establish a sovereign and independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital with geographical integrity within the 1967 borders."

Flouting a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a cross-border incursion by Palestinian group Hamas last October.

More than 42,000 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and some 98,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.