UPDATE - Islamic world, Global South, conscientious Westerners stand for Gaza, 'massacre perpetrators blind, deaf': Turkish foreign minister

UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS FROM TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER

By Esra Tekin

ISTANBUL (AA) – Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday said that the Islamic world, Global South, and conscientious individuals in the West stand for Gaza, while “perpetrators of the massacre ignore this outcry.”

“The Islamic world stands, the Global South stands, and the conscientious individuals in the West stand, however, the perpetrators of the massacre remain blind and deaf to this outcry,” Fidan said during a speech at Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

“We can see that honorable individuals in the West are no longer indifferent to this atrocity in Gaza,” Fidan added.

Fidan said that the loss of effectiveness and legitimacy in the international system has brought more violence and brutality.

"Therefore, we don't have time to lose. We need diplomacy immediately, right now. What is happening in Gaza is the clearest sign of the legitimacy crisis of the international system. The image of Gaza is a moment of disaster where the hypocrisy of the international system is unmistakably revealed,” he added.

He added that the self-immolation of a US soldier because he could not bear complicity in the Gaza massacre was a sign of the legitimacy crisis in the international system.

Referring to the massacre in the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, which Picasso immortalized in his artwork, Fidan pointed out that for the first time since 1937, sirens are now sounding in Guernica, this time for Palestine.

He said that when they talk about the "crisis in the international system", they are not referring to an abstract concept.
"We are talking about a reality where the cries of the oppressed, the shouts of those seeking justice, day by day, moment by moment, are hammered as a nail into the coffin of a system that does not produce solutions.

“We are talking about a decay in which even crying over the massacre of the oppressed and victims is punished … a loss of legitimacy in which it is a crime to be human. Whatever is to be done will be done now so that massacres like in Gaza do not happen again," he added.

Fidan said that they initiated efforts at all levels from the first day of the crisis to urgently end the violence against the people of Gaza, reminding they have expressed since the beginning of the crisis that they are ready to assume responsibility, including guarantorship, together with the countries in the region.