President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday to press the international community for stronger action over Israel's genocidal conduct in Gaza, renewed recognition of Palestinian statehood and reform of the U.N. Security Council, while laying out Türkiye’s positions on conflicts and challenges stretching from Syria and Ukraine to climate change and artificial intelligence.
Erdoğan placed the Palestinian issue at the center of his speech as he addressed the 81st session of the General Assembly, saying Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was unable to attend the gathering for a second consecutive year and pledging that Türkiye would continue to raise the Palestinian people’s voice from the U.N. podium.
“This injustice against our Palestinian brothers and sisters deeply wounds our conscience,” Erdogan said. “Just as last year, this year we will be the voice of a free and sovereign Palestinian state.”
He also called on countries that have yet to recognize Palestine to reconsider their position.
Describing the humanitarian situation in Gaza in stark terms, Erdogan said the enclave had become not only “the world’s largest graveyard for children” but also the place with the highest rate of child amputees due to Israel's genocidal attacks.
He said more than 74,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, had been killed in Gaza over the past three years and that more than 70% of generators at hospitals in the enclave were out of service because of fuel shortages.
He said Israel killed more than 1,500 Palestinians even after a cease-fire was reached through the efforts of U.S. President Donald Trump and contributions from Türkiye and other countries.
“This is not a personal issue for Tayyip Erdogan. It is a matter of humanity,” he said. “No one with humanity in their heart, with compassion and mercy, and with a sense of fairness and conscience can turn a blind eye to this tragedy.”
Erdogan also described Gaza as “the most inhumane and shameful concentration camp of our time” and slammed Israel for pursuing a “genocidal mentality with an insatiable appetite for killing.”
Turning to the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, he said the West Bank was experiencing its worst period of Israeli illegal settler violence and criticized Israeli authorities for restricting Muslim and Christian access to holy sites in Jerusalem.
He also warned against attempts to dismantle UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.
Erdogan urged countries gathered at the U.N. to increase pressure on Israel and reiterated Türkiye’s support for a two-state solution.
“I call on you to exert greater pressure on Israel. Attempts to suffocate Palestine will fail,” Erdogan said.
“God willing, we will see the day when an independent and territorially contiguous Palestinian state, based on the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital, becomes a reality.”
He said the failure to halt conflicts extended well beyond Palestine, pointing to more than 60 wars and conflicts over the past year and saying some 250,000 people had been killed from Gaza, Ukraine and Russia to Myanmar, Darfur, Iran and Lebanon.
He argued that the scale of the violence showed the U.N. was increasingly unable to fulfill its founding responsibility of preserving international peace and security.
Beyond the Middle East, Erdogan renewed his longstanding demand for changes to the structure of the U.N. Security Council, arguing that the current system gives disproportionate power to its five permanent members.
“A system in which the will of more than 190 countries is subject to the whims of five countries is neither fair nor capable of fully inspiring trust,” Erdogan said.
He said the Security Council “must be reformed” in accordance with his longstanding principle that “the world is bigger than five,” referring to the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain, which hold permanent seats and veto power on the council.
Erdogan outlined several principles for a fairer international system, including applying international law equally to powerful and weaker states, strengthening regional ownership of crises and putting cooperation and open diplomacy at the center of interstate relations.
He cited the Black Sea Grain Initiative as an example of Türkiye using regional diplomacy to contribute to both regional and global security.
Erdogan also addressed growing competition over technology and the global economy, warning that “technological polarization and digital hegemony” were not in the interests of either the U.N.-centered international system or its member states.
He called for countries to jointly develop “a new paradigm” to confront deepening global income inequality.
Erdogan also addressed artificial intelligence, warning that the technology was becoming increasingly difficult to control and calling for a common international legal framework.
He urged countries to accelerate efforts toward a U.N. international convention governing artificial intelligence.
On Syria, Erdogan said the country had entered a new period following the Dec. 8 change in government and voiced support for President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
He said Syria was moving toward becoming a secure and peaceful country despite what he described as internal and external provocations and pledged that Türkiye would continue supporting the Syrian people.
Erdogan also backed efforts to strengthen state authority and stability in neighboring Iraq, highlighting cooperation on transportation and energy projects, particularly the Development Road Project.
On the Russia-Ukraine war, Erdogan said Türkiye hoped for an end to the conflict that preserved Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
He said Ankara remained in contact with the parties to restore navigational security in the Black Sea, protect food security and prevent the war from spreading.
Erdogan strongly condemned attacks against commercial shipping in the Black Sea regardless of who carried them out.
He separately stressed the need to preserve freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and said Türkiye was working with regional actors to prevent conflicts in the Gulf from spreading further.
In the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, he called for disputes to be resolved through international law and good-neighborly relations and renewed Türkiye’s proposal for an Eastern Mediterranean Conference.
On Cyprus, Erdogan called for international recognition of the sovereign equality and international status of the Turkish Cypriot people.
“The inhumane isolation they have endured must finally come to an end,” he said.
“I call on the international community to recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and establish political and economic relations with it.”
He also emphasized Türkiye’s role in European security, arguing that the continent could not build an effective security architecture without Ankara.
“A Europe that excludes Türkiye from its security architecture cannot, let me say this clearly, become stronger or safer,” he said.
He pointed to Türkiye’s NATO membership, growing defense industry and the NATO summit hosted in Ankara in July as evidence of the country’s role in European and trans-Atlantic security.
Erdogan said Ankara wanted to shape its future relationship with the European Union through the same strategic perspective and expected Brussels to reciprocate.
Turning to the South Caucasus, he voiced support for lasting peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia and praised Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for their commitment to reaching a settlement.
He said Türkiye would also continue its normalization process with Armenia.
Erdogan highlighted growing cooperation within the Organization of Turkic States and said its 13th leaders’ summit would be held in Ankara on Oct. 30.
On Africa, Erdogan expressed support for efforts toward a cease-fire and lasting peace in Sudan, stronger security and institutional capacity in Somalia and a Libyan-led reconciliation process in Libya.
He said Türkiye would continue supporting Libya’s political process and announced that the fourth Türkiye-Africa Partnership Summit would be held in Libya in December.
He also said disputes in South Asia, including Kashmir, should be addressed through dialogue in accordance with the U.N. Charter and relevant resolutions.
Climate change and inequality also featured prominently in the address.
Erdogan said Türkiye would host the COP31 climate summit in Antalya in November and wanted the gathering to become an “Implementation COP,” focused on fulfilling climate finance commitments, accelerating technology transfers and translating pledges into concrete action.
He highlighted the Zero Waste Movement launched by first lady Emine he in 2017 and called for greater international efforts to tackle waste and food insecurity.
Erdogan said more than 2 billion tons of food were wasted globally each year, arguing that there could be no genuine global justice while food was discarded on a massive scale as hundreds of millions struggled with hunger.
He also announced Türkiye’s nomination of Mehmet Mehdi Eker for director-general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
Turning to social issues, he warned of rising Islamophobia, xenophobia, cultural racism and antisemitism.
He said Muslim women and girls were increasingly subjected to discrimination and criticized headscarf bans in schools in some countries as violations of women’s fundamental rights.
Erdogan also identified disinformation on social media as a growing threat to social peace, saying defending factual information had become increasingly important.
Concluding his address, Erdogan pledged to continue using the U.N. platform to speak for people he described as oppressed, aggrieved and voiceless.
“As long as God grants me life, I will continue to be the voice of the oppressed from this podium,” he said. “We will not remain silent in the face of injustice, nor will we ever accept oppression.”
Erdogan said the international community ultimately faced two paths: deeper uncertainty driven by fear, conflict and isolation, or a future built through justice, solidarity and collective action.
“Türkiye has chosen the second path,” he said.
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