Addressing UN, Erdogan calls war in Gaza ‘genocide,’ claims Israel threatening post-WWII values

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slams Israel’s war against Hamas as a “genocide” during his speech at the UN General Assembly, showing images of the destruction in Gaza during the address.

“A genocide is continuing in Gaza; even as we meet here, innocent people are dying,” Erdogan says in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

“We cannot possibly talk about the presence of two sides in Gaza, because in Gaza, on one side, there is a regular army with the most modern, most lethal weapons, and on the other hand, there are innocent civilians, innocent children. This is not a fight against terrorism. This is an occupation, deportation, exile, genocide, and destruction of life,” he says.

The ongoing war in Gaza began when Hamas launched its massacre on Israel on October 7, 2023, when terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages to Gaza.

Erdogan slams Israel’s actions in the West Bank, “where Hamas is not in power,” as well as “attacks on Syria, on Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon,” as well as criticizing Israel’s strike on Qatar earlier this month, which targeted, but failed to eliminate, Hamas’s leadership.

“[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is obviously not interested in forging peace or releasing the hostages. Not only Israel’s neighbors, but all countries in the Middle East are subject to the Israeli government’s reckless threats,” he says, charging that Israel’s actions threaten “the values that emerged after the Second World War.”

He goes as far as to blame Israel for the shelving of “fundamental human rights” around the world.