Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan reiterated his country’s criticism of Israel’s indiscriminate attacks against Palestinians and said without the State of Palestine, the region will not find peace.
The minister spoke to Bosnian magazine Stav in an exclusive interview and delved into the Palestine-Israel conflict, which led Ankara to embark on international diplomatic efforts for a solution. Türkiye advocated a two-state solution for a permanent end to the conflict, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a fully independent Palestinian state based on pre-occupation borders.
“This tragedy did not begin on Oct. 7,” Fidan said, referring to last year’s offensive by the liberation movement Hamas that was responded by a barrage of attacks by Israel on Palestinian territories that continues to this day and claimed nearly 40,000 lives.
“Oct. 7 is a date on which a long ignored problem manifested itself again. This problem is the decades-old occupation of Palestinian lands. Israel never abandons its habit of stealing Palestinian lands and prevents Palestine from having a genuine state. They tend to forget that peace will not prevail in these lands without a Palestinian state,” he said.
Fidan highlighted that Israel razed Gaza to the ground under the pretext of ensuring its own security and slaughtered children, women and the elderly. “Savagery in Gaza exposed the weakness of current global order,” he said as he criticized the lack of reaction to Israel’s attacks. “All basic humanitarian values are trampled in Gaza and they did not allow even delivery of humanitarian aid,” he lamented.
“Israel does not bomb Gaza only. It also pursues a systematic policy of depriving people of food and water. They cannot tolerate the existence of Palestinians. We have seen that in their efforts to thwart the work of UNRWA,” he said, referring to the U.N. agency providing aid to Palestinians.
The minister compared what is happening in Gaza to what happened in Srebrenica. “The West, particularly Europe, took the wrong side again,” he said, adding that perpetrators of massacres in Gaza should not get away with it.
“Overall, we witness a horrible hypocrisy in the West in their stance on the matter. The West views the invasion of Ukraine as a crime, but Israel’s invasion of Palestine is viewed as something natural and legitimate. Those encouraging people of Ukraine to resist criminalizes Palestinians’ resistance,” he stated. He highlighted that even amid massacres amounting to genocide, the West continued supplying arms to Israel.
“Governments of the West failed the test in their stance on Gaza, but we value the opposition of some countries to those massacres,” he said, naming Spain, Norway, Ireland and Slovenia, which joined the growing list of countries recognizing the State of Palestine. “I hope this principled stance will inspire other Western countries.”
Fidan represents Türkiye in the Contact Group, which pursues diplomacy to resolve the conflict. The group includes member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League. He said Türkiye was raising the voice of Gaza on every platform and supported mediation efforts by Qatar and Egypt. He hailed Hamas’ constructive stand in talks and expressed hope that Israel would change its stand.
“Israel should understand that it cannot achieve results by targeting all Gazans,” he stated.
He also underlined the necessity of unity among Palestinians and said Türkiye was pleased with the declaration Fatah and Hamas agreed upon at a meeting in Beijing in July.
