UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS; EDITS THROUGHOUT, REVISES HEADLINE
By Esra Tekin and Gozde Bayar
ISTANBUL (AA) - Türkiye on Monday welcomed Palestinian group Hamas announcing it had agreed to a Gaza cease-fire deal, adding that Ankara expects the same step to be taken by Israel, said the country’s president.
“We welcome Hamas’ announcement that it accepted a cease-fire deal in Gaza with our efforts, and the same step should be taken by Israel,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after a Cabinet meeting.
Erdogan also urged “Western actors” to pressure the Israeli government to accept the cease-fire deal.
“We believe that there is no door that dialogue and negotiation cannot open,” he said, underlining the importance of “good intentions and diplomacy.”
Türkiye has repeatedly pressed for a cease-fire in Gaza since the early days of the conflict, some seven months ago, and has called on all countries worldwide to help make a deal happen.
Erdogan also reiterated Türkiye’s determination to fight terrorism in the region “until we drain the terrorism swamp in northern Iraq,” referring to the presence there of the terrorist PKK.
On his visit last month to Iraq after a 13-year break, Erdogan said it had “historical importance” in terms of both its results and the messages it sent.
Iraqi and Turkish officials discussed especially issues of security, transportation, energy and water, he said, adding that they crowned the visit with 27 agreements signed in various fields.
Stressing that the Iraqi government's declaration of the PKK as a banned organization is a significant step in fighting terrorism, he said: "We also said that we expect the PKK to be declared a terrorist organization.”
Turning to the PKK’s Syrian branch, the YPG/PKK, he added: “We will definitely complete our unfinished business in (northern) Syria when the time comes, due to promises made by our allies that have not been kept.”
Türkiye has complained that the U.S. and Russia failed to keep their pledges to keep the terrorist YPG/PKK at least 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Syria’s border with Türkiye.
Turning to the second successful test flight of Turkish homegrown fighter jet KAAN carried out on Monday, Erdogan congratulated Turkish Aerospace Industries – the firm behind the plane – and the state Defense Industries Agency, saying they had made the Turkish nation proud twice since the beginning of the year.
In its nearly 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is its Syrian branch.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a cross-border attack on Oct. 7 last year by the Palestinian group Hamas, which killed about 1,200 people. Nearly 34,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of them women and children, and 78,000 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities
Nearly seven months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians there.