By Ali Murat Alhas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkish President on Saturday called on the international community to prioritize bringing perpetrators of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi to justice and do not allow this topic to be out of their agenda.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke at the press conference in INTEX Osaka International Exhibition Center in line with G20 Leaders’ Summit held in Japan and delivered remarks on a variety of subjects.
“Bringing perpetrators of Khashoggi murder, from top to bottom level, to justice is the primary task of the international community,'' Erdogan said at his speech, calling on the world countries to keep slain journalist’s death at the global agenda.
Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by a group of Saudi operatives shortly after he entered the country's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 last year.
Riyadh offered various, conflicting narratives to explain his disappearance before acknowledging he was murdered in the diplomatic building while seeking to shift blame for his death on a botched rendition operation being carried out by rogue agents.
Khashoggi's body has not been recovered, and the Kingdom has remained silent on its whereabouts.
In her report, UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard said the murder of Jamal Khashoggi "constituted an extrajudicial killing" for which "Saudi Arabia is responsible."
- Refugee crisis
President Erdogan said he told his counterparts about the “sacrifices” Turkey has made since 2011 when the Syrian civil war erupted, prompting influx of millions of refugees into Turkey.
“Since 2011, we have opened our door to over four million refugees, including 3.6 million Syrians who fled the clashes,” Erdogan said, adding regional countries were the only ones taking the responsibility of irregular migrants.
Erdogan said Turkey, according to the UN calculations, have spent over $37 billion whereas the international organizations have allocated some $2 billion dollars. The UN Refugee Agency provided a total of a billion dollar for the refugees in Turkey, he added.
He said the developed Western countries who lecture others about human rights have failed at humanitarian dimension of the Syrian conflict.
“As long as conscious-based policies are not preferred over prejudices against refugees, more toddlers will die in the sea,” he said, referring to Aylan Kurdi -- a three-year-old Syrian toddler, who drowned on a Turkish coast in 2015 while trying to cross to Europe.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.
According to the UN on Thursday, more than 230 civilians have lost their lives, more than 330,000 have fled in just six weeks, and three million more remain at risk.
- Acts of terrorism worldwide
President Erdogan slammed the acts of terror that target civilians all around the globe and called on all countries to have a stance against terrorism.
“Terrorism should not be linked to any ethnicity or religion,” Erdogan said, indirectly pointing to the rising Islamophobia across the globe.
He added that the terror attacks in New Zealand and Sri Lanka were obvious examples that terror does not discriminate between targets.
At least 51 Muslim worshippers were massacred and as many injured in a white supremacist terror attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
On Easter Sunday, over 250 people were killed in Colombo city of Sri Lanka, majority of the victims were Christians.
In line with the summit context, President Erdogan attended a special session on the theme of “Women’s Empowerment” and the final session of the summit dubbed “Climate Change – Environment and Energy”.
President Erdogan thanked Japan for hosting such a "successful" event and underlined that G20 summit was "meaningful" in the sense of discussing various topics with different state actors.
Erdogan held talks with a number of leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Theresa May, French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The G20 Leaders’ Summit, followed by more than 2,000 journalists from around the world, is being attended by 30,000 people, including 19 leaders and delegates from the European Union.
(More to follow)