By Janet Ekstract ISTANBUL- At a World Human Rights Day event on Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated the need for the United Nations to undergo reform. Erdogan’s comments followed the U.S. veto of a proposed resolution at the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) last week to pass a resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza that would end Israel’s continued bombing of Gaza and its civilians. As Erdogan commented: “Due to a veto by the U.S., no decision was reached. It is essential for the U.N. Security Council to be reformed.” He added: “We have lost our hope and expectation from the U.N. Security Council.” Erdogan continued: “Since Oct. 7, the U.N. Security Council whose mission is to establish global peace, has turned into a protector of Israel.” The Turkish leader repeated that “the butchers of Gaza” must be held accountable for what he said are crimes against humanity. Several weeks ago, Erdogan and his ministers delivered a set of documents including video proof of war crimes to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in an attempt to get the ICC to hold Israel responsible.
Erdogan said the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being shamelessly violated in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories. As Erdogan explained: “We see the declaration as a cornerstone of humanity’s dignified struggle for life, even though it has not been able to put an end to human rights violations. We believe that the declaration has made significant contributions to the creation of global awareness regarding the protection and improvement of human rights.” Criticizing Western societies, the Turkish president said: “Islamaphobia and xenophobia, like a poisonous vine, stand at the forefront of threats to human rights, entwining Western societies.” He also emphasized that attacks on centers of worship, business centers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and associations own ed by Muslims have skyrocketed globally. He added that it’s ironic that a majority of such abuses happen in “countries marketed as the cradle of democracy and human rights.”
The Turkish leader further stated that Western nations are rife with “double standards” and “hypocrisy” when it comes to following through on preventing such abuses from taking place though he did not cite any countries by name. In recent talks in the U.S. with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan echoed Erdogan’s position when he said that all nations must hold to a principled, consistent stand far from double standards for preserving human dignity and common values which are the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Fidan told the press that he brought up Turkiye’s position on Gaza with the Biden administration. As Fidan said: “We express to them very clearly the seriousness of the situation here, that there is no more tolerance, and our stance on what steps need to be taken in this regard.”
