Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu highlighted the importance of eliminating factors feeding terrorism to win the fight against the issue, in a speech he made at the Global Counterterrorism Forum, organized on the sidelines of the U.N.'s 77th session of the General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.
Noting that terrorism has been a global challenge and has been on the rise due to easy access to technology, the top Turkish diplomat said the root causes must be addressed.
"The fight against terrorism cannot be won without addressing factors that feed it," he said, adding that it is also necessary to stop terrorist rhetoric by defeating their ideologies.
"We also face the new phenomenon of post-organizational terrorism. Attacks by small cells or lone actors who are loosely affiliated with terrorist groups, but inspired by their narratives, pose a serious challenge," he said.
The Turkish foreign minister further noted that "violent far-right attacks driven by Islamophobia, white supremacy, and racism are also on the rise."
He called on all parties to not allow terrorist groups to "abuse rights and freedoms and exploit asylum systems."
Success in counterterrorism efforts depends on "collective effort to deny any safe haven to terrorists," Çavuşoğlu said, and reiterated that "experience taught us that terrorism does not have any religion or ethnic identity."
Urging to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, he stressed that there should be no place for double standards.
Citing Türkiye's "crucial role" in fighting the Daesh terrorist group, he also reiterated his country's fight against the PKK terrorists and their offshoots, such as the YPG, and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) while also preventing the movement of foreign terrorists.
"Providing legitimacy to a terrorist organization because it is fighting against another terrorist group will backfire," he affirmed, which was in reference to the West employing YPG terrorists to fight Daesh terrorists.
Türkiye was one of the first countries to declare Daesh a terrorist group.
The country has since been attacked by the terrorist group multiple times. It has carried out at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks and four armed attacks, killing 315 people and injuring hundreds more. In response, Türkiye launched counterterrorism operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks.
FETÖ orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in Türkiye, in which 252 people were killed and 2,734 injured. Ankara accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, United Kingdom and European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
