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"Everyone should take responsibility to ensure a fair and lasting peace in the Middle East"

Presidency Of The Republic Of Turkey

17.11.2023

Speaking at a joint press conference with Chancellor Scholz of Germany, President Erdoğan said: "As Türkiye, our aim is to establish a climate where Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in peace, where calm and security prevail. I believe everyone should take responsibility to ensure a fair and lasting peace in the Middle East."

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany held a joint press conference in Berlin.

Thanking President Steinmeier and Chancellor Scholz for their hospitality, President Erdoğan said they would discuss all aspects of the Turkish-German relations.

President Erdoğan said that the meeting would cover the commercial, political and military aspects as well as the developments between Russia and Ukraine and also the developments between Israel and Palestine.

"I will speak clearly and frankly here too, because October 7 is described as the beginning. The process after October 7 is never discussed. As of now, 13 thousand Palestinian children, women and elderly people have unfortunately been killed. In addition to this, there is almost no Gaza left anymore; the whole place has been leveled to the ground. They keep talking about Hamas. Can Hamas' weaponry and power be compared to Israel's weaponry and power? Does Israel currently have nuclear weapons? Yes, it does, but if you ask Israel, they will not admit it because they use lies very well. Also, there is talk of financial support being provided. Well, is such financial support given to Hamas? Is there such a thing? No, there is not. Palestine itself is not being given the support it should be given," President Erdoğan said.

President Erdoğan pointed out that in addition to all this poverty, places of worship, churches and hospitals were fired at.

"THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN WAR SHOULD NOT BE EVALUATED IN A PSYCHOLOGY OF INDEBTEDNESS"

Underlining that firing at hospitals and killing children is not in the Torah, President Erdoğan said: "There is none of this in the Torah. You can't do it. According to the Declaration of Human Rights, you can't do it either. But as we see here, how are these children being shot, how are they being killed in hospitals? Are we going to stand with our hands and arms tied in the face of this? Are we not going to raise our voice against this? If we stand here with our hands, arms and tongues tied, we will not be able to answer for it before history. Therefore, the Israeli-Palestinian war should not be evaluated in a psychology of indebtedness. I speak freely because we don't owe anything to Israel. If we were in debt, we could not speak so freely. But those who are in debt cannot speak freely. We did not go through the Holocaust and we are not in such a situation. Because our respect for human beings is very different. I am a leader who took a stance on anti-Semitism for the first time during my term as prime minister. No prime minister in the world has taken this stance. But I did, way back then. Because of this, we owe no one."

Highlighting the importance of Türkiye and Germany's contributions to the humanitarian ceasefire, President Erdoğan said: "Are we in or are we out? Mr. Steinmeier is going to Israel a week later. I had a request from him. I said, you hold one side and we will hold the other side, whatever our part is. The important thing is to achieve this humanitarian ceasefire together. If we can take this step, if we can achieve such a humanitarian ceasefire together, Germany-Türkiye, others, we will be able to save the region from this ring of fire. There is talk of an exchange of hostages. We are in. But when you say hostages, what is the number of hostages in Israel? On the other side, what is the number of hostages held by Hamas or Palestine? When we look at this, there are many times more hostages in the hands of Israel. There are hostages and prisoners, held by Israel for years. We need to see this too. It would be unfair if we don't see this."

Stating that Türkiye did not make a distinction between Europe and Africa in its work on the Black Sea Grain Corridor Agreement, President Erdoğan said: "40 percent of what came from the Black Sea Grain Corridor went to Europe, 14 percent went to Africa, 14 percent came to us. The rest went to other regions. Even now, there are demands from Africa and Russia has decided to send a significant amount of grain and wheat, but they have problems. What is that problem? As far as I remember, the grain is being sent to Zimbabwe, but the milling stage is not there. As Türkiye, as the Turkish Grain Board, we can grind it in mills and send it there as flour."

"There are steps we need to take, there are things we need to do. We will do these things. At the moment, Russia has planned to send grain to four or five countries through such a corridor and will do so. We will also take this step in the second phase of this, which is the conversion of this grain into flour. We have already taken a trilateral step as Russia- Türkiye -Qatar before and we will do this work. Of course, in order for all these steps to be taken, we need to take such a step, especially between Germany and Türkiye, and we also need to negotiate with our NATO ally Germany to take decisive steps," President Erdoğan said.

"CLOSER COOPERATION IN THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM"

"It is in our mutual interest that our cooperation on defense industry continues unhindered," President Erdoğan said, voicing his desire for closer cooperation between Türkiye and Germany in the fight against terrorism.

"It is our greatest wish that the Turkish community in Germany, which serves as a social bridge between the two countries and whose population has reached 3.5 million, lives in peace," President Erdoğan said. "In order to meet the religious needs of the Turkish community, we are carrying out a joint work to train our clerics working here. Another area of cooperation with Germany is migration. Our joint working group continues its work."

"One of the main agendas of our talks will be Türkiye's accession process to the European Union," President Erdoğan underscored. "As you know, I have already stated that we sincerely wish this process to regain momentum. We have long had justified expectations on issues such as updating the Customs Union and visa liberalization. We attach importance to the contributions of Germany, one of the leading countries of the European Union, in this context. For 52 years Türkiye has been kept waiting at the door of the European Union. We will also discuss today the facilitation and acceleration of visa procedures for our citizens until visa liberalization is achieved."

Noting that the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza was on the agenda of his meeting with Chancellor Scholz, President Erdoğan said: "As Türkiye, we have expressed from the very beginning that we by no means approve of attacks targeting civilians. The priority for all of us is to ensure a ceasefire and the unhindered flow of humanitarian aid.

So far, we have sent 10 planeloads of humanitarian aid to Egypt and most recently we have sent 666 tons of food, field hospitals, etc. by ship, but all we care about is to stop the bloodshed. Most recently, we transfered 27 cancer patients and their attendants from El Arish to Türkiye. Yesterday, I visited them in the hospital and saw how they were doing."

"OUR AIM IS TO ESTABLISH A CLIMATE WHERE ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS LIVE SIDE BY SIDE IN PEACE"

"The events have once again shown that a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders is now inevitable. As Türkiye, our aim is to establish a climate where Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in peace, where calm and security prevail. We must accomplish that. I believe everyone should take responsibility to ensure a fair and lasting peace in the Middle East," President Erdoğan said.

A German reporter asker; "Following the Hamas' terrorist attacks on Israel, your statements have caused concern not only in Germany but also among NATO member states. Do you recognize Israel's right to exist? You said that Israel is a 'fascist state', what justification do you have for this? Why do you call the Israeli army's offensive against Hamas a 'genocide'? How can you describe an organization that is recognized as a terrorist organization by the entire NATO alliance, an organization that has murdered hundreds of people in Israel, as a 'liberation organization'? Are you jeopardizing Turkish-German relations, cooperation within NATO? Türkiye is demanding 40 Eurofighters for the defense industry. Will Germany accept this?" President Erdoğan, in response, said: "First of all, Türkiye is one of the leading countries in NATO, a country in the top five. Türkiye is not an ordinary country in NATO. It is in the top five. At the moment, no matter who has what opinion in NATO, who is everyone siding with between Russia and Ukraine? They are siding with Ukraine. As Türkiye, we are in talks with both Ukraine and Russia. We do not make any distinction between them. But we were the ones who took all that grain, 33 million tons, to Europe and Africa through the grain corridor. Right now you are saying 'hundreds'. I am not saying hundreds, but thousands of Palestinians have been killed by Israel. Is it targeting hospitals, places of worship, and churches? It is. This disturbs me as a Muslim. Well, as a Christian, are you not disturbed by the shooting of these churches? Why don't you take a stand against them? Take a stand against them too. For us, there should be no distinction between Jews, Christians and Muslims in this region. If there was a struggle against anti-Semitism, I was the first leader in the world to wage this struggle. And right now, look, Germany is talking about 'giving so much financial support to Israel'."

With regard to the Eurofighters, President Erdoğan said: "About the Eurofighters, Germany might give them or not. Is Germany the only country in the world that manufactures warplanes? We could work on it and supply them from many places. Currently, Türkiye has become one of the leading countries in terms of UCAVs."

Following the joint press conference, President Erdoğan held a bilateral meeting with Chancellor Scholz. President Erdoğan and German Chancellor Scholz then attended a working dinner between the delegations.