Turkey will always stand by Palestinians, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Monday.
Releasing a Twitter message to mark International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the minister said: "Palestine will never be alone! We will continue to stand by our Palestinian brothers and sisters who are fighting for their just cause."
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also last week made a call to put a stop to Israel's policies of illegal settlement, destruction, forced displacement, confiscation and evacuation in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, underlining Turkey's determination to defend the Palestinian cause to the end.
Known for its unbreakable solidarity with the Palestinians, Turkey has been voicing support for the Palestinian cause on the international stage for decades. Turkish authorities emphasize that the only way to achieve lasting peace and stability in the Middle East is through a fair and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue within the framework of international law and United Nations resolutions.
Turkish officials continue to criticize Israel’s policies targeting Palestinians, including the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community. Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital – a status not recognized internationally. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital for their future state. Gaza has also been under a tightened Israeli blockade since 2007 and most basic goods enter the region through highly restricted measures.
In 1977, the U.N. General Assembly called for the annual observance of Nov. 29 as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. On that day, in 1947, the General Assembly adopted the resolution on the partition of Palestine. In resolution 60/37 of Dec. 1, 2005, the General Assembly requested the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Division for Palestinian Rights, as part of the observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on Nov. 29, to continue to organize an annual exhibit on Palestinian rights or a cultural event in cooperation with the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the U.N.
The resolution on the observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People also encourages member states to continue to give the widest support and publicity to the observance of the day of solidarity.
