Speaker of the GNAT, Kurtulmuş attended the online meeting held by the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (PUIC) regarding the developments in Palestine.

In his speech at the meeting, Kurtulmuş stated that it is a historical responsibility to ensure an urgent ceasefire to solve the humanitarian crisis in Palestine and to deliver humanitarian support to the innocent and oppressed living in Gaza, and said, “This is a great responsibility for all humanity, but especially for us, the people and rulers of Muslim countries, it is a historical responsibility that we should never neglect.”

Stating that they, as Türkiye, are fighting with great effort to ensure the ceasefire and humanitarian aid, Kurtulmuş stated that the occupation regime did not allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, and the international community continued to remain silent against this tragedy.

Emphasizing that steps should be taken to solve the political crisis in the long term while focusing on resolving the humanitarian crisis in the short term, Kurtulmuş stated that in this direction, efforts should be made to establish an independent, integrated, sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital.

“Establishing a Palestine that not only exists on paper, divided neighborhood by neighborhood, but also has its territorial integrity, is one of the most fundamental duties of the Islamic world and one of the most fundamental conditions for Middle East peace.” said Kurtulmuş and underlined that it is important to protect the innocence of all holy places, especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to resolve the issue of illegal settlers.

- "It is obvious that the world needs a new global system"

Reminding President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's words "The world is bigger than 5", Kurtulmuş, the Speaker of the GNAT, continued his speech as follows:

"Now we propose, 'Let the United Nations Security Council convene.' What will happen if it convenes? A condemnation resolution or a sanction resolution against Israel will be vetoed by their uncles in the Council when it convenes. Therefore, it is obvious that the world needs a new global system with fairness and justice. Hopefully, this human tragedy will open the doors to the establishment of a new world system and meeting this need will be something that we will ensure by working together.

Undoubtedly, while saying all these things to the world, we need to stick the needle into ourselves a little bit. As representatives of Muslim countries with a population of about 2 billion in the world, we should not forget that we need to raise our voices louder. We hope that Islamic countries will not leave these meetings among themselves without results. We have to raise our voices at the highest pitch, not only to be heard by all the oppressed, but also to be feared by all the oppressors. For this, we will speak out more forcefully on every international platform."

- "We have to draw the attention of the world community to the war crimes committed by Israel"

Asking for a strong declaration to be shared with the public as a joint declaration as a result of the meeting of the PUIC on the Palestinian agenda, Kurtulmuş made the following assessment:

"We, as the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (GNAT), shared a strong declaration with the world public opinion on October 12 with the joint signature of all the parties that have a group in the Assembly. Hopefully, as one of the practical results of today's meeting, we, as Türkiye, will propose that a very strong declaration, which was initially proposed by the Speaker of the Parliament of Algeria, be announced at the end of this meeting. In this declaration, at least four issues must be underlined and three fundamental issues related to the political solution must be underlined. First of all, this declaration must draw the attention of the world public opinion to the crimes and war crimes committed by Israel.

This declaration must be an announcement that declares our support for the oppressed Palestinian people and empowers concrete relief efforts. It should also be a declaration of the full commitment of all Islamic countries to the Palestinian cause, despite their political and ideological differences. Finally, this declaration should remind the international community of its historical responsibilities and invite the international community to overcome its silence and fulfill its responsibility to ensure that the oppressed Palestinian people are not subjected to a total genocide or even a total ethnic cleansing from now on."

17 October 2023