Speaking at a joint news conference with visiting Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan hit out at Israel over killings of innocent Palestinians. He said Israel committed genocide by killing thousands of Palestinians and displacing more.
“Killing innocent Palestinian children in their bed is as wrong as killing innocent Jews in concentration camps,” he said at the news conference in the capital Ankara on Tuesday.
“International law and human rights are being trampled by Israel and diplomatic efforts failed once again due to Rafah invasion,” he also said.
Fidan also reiterated Türkiye’s stance on Hamas, underlining that it was not a terrorist group as some members of the international community claimed but rather, a group “defending (Palestinian) lands.” He branded Israel as an occupying power in Palestinian lands.
"It was not a war out of the blue. Israel is an occupying power," he said. "Everybody was aware that (the conflict) will erupt one day and it happened on Oct. 7. Türkiye condemned the killing of civilians on Oct. 7 and this remains our principle," he said, referring to the Hamas attack.
"But at the same time, we say that it is a crime against humanity Israel committed by killing thousands of innocent Palestinians systematically, not randomly but regularly for seven months.
"This is not a genocide attempt, this is the act of genocide," he said.
As he turned to his Austrian counterpart at the news conference, Fidan said they understood the stance of countries like Austria and Germany on the Palestine-Israel conflict due to "unfortunate incidents of World War II," referring to the Holocaust. His remarks were a reinterpretation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's earlier statements about the "debt" of European countries to Israel. "It is not about who did it, it is about what is done. We have to condemn the killing of civilians. We have to side with the oppressed. It is wrong to justify the oppression by those oppressed in the past," Fidan said.
The minister lamented that the international community failed to stop Israeli occupation in "many different forms," stopping "thieves called settlers."
Schallenberg for his part, voiced appreciation for Türkiye's efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, as well as hope that Ankara would also mediate on other issues, such as in the South Caucasus.
"We already know that Türkiye has undertaken a great burden in terms of refugees and irregular migration," Alexander Schallenberg said. Urging greater support for Ankara on these matters, he pointed out the need for security cooperation as well. Schallenberg stressed that Türkiye, while "surrounded by a ring of fire either on the East or the Sahel region," bears a "very important role and responsibility."
On Türkiye's role in the Middle East, the Austrian top diplomat said the country's word "carries weight" in the region, referring particularly to events in the Gaza Strip between Palestinians and Israel.
Touching on the issues of ensuring humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, which has been subject to intense Israeli attacks and blockade for over seven months, and the release of hostages held in the enclave, he reaffirmed Vienna's stance for a two-state solution. "Austria has been chasing this solution for decades," he emphasized, calling on all "smart actors in the region" to cooperate on this issue.
"We all know that we are on the edge of a cliff," he warned, adding that "every single wrong step may have dire results."
"Not just the region itself but the whole of Europe, as well as Türkiye, may also be affected by this," he said.
Despite warnings from Israel's allies, including the U.S., Tel Aviv insists on continuing its attacks on Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians have taken refuge since Oct. 7 last year.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas, which killed some 1,200 people. More than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and almost 79,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities in Tel Aviv's war on Gaza.
International organizations, including U.N. agencies, have demanded a cease-fire in Gaza and increased humanitarian aid access to address medical shortages, hunger, thirst, and hygiene deficiencies leading to diseases in Gaza. The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
