Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of the Republic of Turkey, addresses the general debate of the 74th Session of the General Assembly of the UN (New York, 24 – 30 September 2019).

“The possession of nuclear power should either be forbidden for all or permissible for all,” Turkish President Recep Erdogan said in his speech today at the United Nations General Debate.

“The world is bigger than five,” argued Erdogan and continued to say that “the inequality between nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states is alone enough to undermine global balances.”

“It bothers us like everyone else that the weapons of mass destruction are used as leverage in every crisis, instead of their total elimination,” he added.

Erdogan was speaking at the 74th annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly. In his speech, Turkish President elaborated his plan for establishment of a so called “peace corridor” in Syria, along its Turkish border with a depth of thirty kilometers and a length of 480 kilometers which would – according to Erdogan, enable the settlement of up to two million displaced Syrians there.

He also urged the international community “to do everything to prevent a possible massacre in Idlib and stop a potential wave of migration of about four million people” and warned that “Turkey has neither the patience nor the means to handle another wave of migration.”

“For this reason, we expect all countries to support Turkey's efforts to ensure security and stability in Idlib,” said Erdogan.

Speaking from the rostrum of the General Assembly, Erdogan said “I am asking from this podium: where are the borders of the State of Israel? Is it the 1948 borders, the 1967 borders, or is there any other border? How can the Golan Heights and the West Bank settlements be seized, just like other occupied Palestinian territories, before the eyes of the world if they are not within the borders of this State?”

He continued to say that “all actors of the international community, in particular the United Nations, should provide concrete support to the Palestinian people beyond mere promises. In this regard, it is very important for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to continue its activities effectively.”

The rise in racist, xenophobic, discriminatory and anti-Islamic tendencies are the biggest threats to global peace and security, according to the Turkish President, who said “just as the terrorist attack targeting Muslims in New Zealand is wrong, the acts of terrorism targeting Christians in Sri Lanka and Jews in the United States are equally wrong.”

In this regard, Erdogan denounced “the populist politicians seeking for votes by provoking these tendencies as well as the communities that normalize hate speech under the pretext of freedom of expression” as the main galvanizing forces “for turning this disease almost into an insanity.”

Published on Sep 24, 2019