More than 520,000 people turned out at an Istanbul rally on Thursday to raise awareness to plight of Palestinians in Gaza and Israel’s genocide.
The massive turnout in cold weather and on New Year’s Day was another sign of Türkiye’s unwavering support for Palestinians. Indeed, this was the third such rally held every New Year’s Day since 2024. Türkiye is the fiercest critic of Israel’s genocide in the Palestinian territories and cut off ties with Tel Aviv after the conflict began. Since 2023, people of diverse political affiliations have staged rallies across the country to protest Israel.
İbrahim Beşinci, head of Turkish Youth Foundation (TÜGVA), one of major civil society groups contributing to National Will Platform that organized Thursday’s rally, hailed participants representing “a honorable nation standing against genocide.” “Prayers of the oppressed, legacy of martyrs are with us today,” he told the crowd waving Turkish and Palestinian flags. “We salute innocent and brave people of Palestine, noble sons and daughters of Gaza, fighting heart of West Bank and true owners of East Jerusalem,” he said.
The rally, held under the motto “We won’t cower, we won't keep quiet, we won't forget Palestine,” was the work of Humanity Alliance and National Will Platform that brought together some 400 civil society organizations. It was also a tribute to three police officers killed earlier this week in a Daesh attack in northwestern Türkiye.
Beşinci’s address was a “roll-call” of iconic figures of Palestine. He said all martyrs with them on Istanbul today to the shouts of the crowd. “Ismail Haniyeh who sacrificed his entire family for Palestine, Yahya Sinwar who became a martyr in the battlefield, Abu Ubaida, that voice which instilled fear on the enemy, are with us today,” he said.
Describing Galata Bridge as a "tribune of conscience," Beşinci said it had transformed into a moral platform for people from different cities, languages and walks of life.
Citing figures on the devastation in Gaza, Beşinci said that over the past 27 months, 210,000 tons of bombs had been dropped on Gaza, 70,000 civilians had been killed, 2,600 families had been completely wiped from the population registry, and 5,000 families had only a single surviving member.
He added that 45,000 Palestinians had undergone amputations and 12,000 Palestinians had been detained.
"In other words, before the eyes of the entire world, a people has been erased not just from the map, but from life," he said.
Beşinci lamented that the United Nations formed to ensure global peace and justice failed to see violations of human rights in Gaza. “Shame on you! They burned down hospitals, schools, places of worship, they turned water, electricity and medicine into weapons as they deprived (Palestinians) of these. Shame on those who condemned people to death, exile, captivity, those who stole lives, hopes and future of people!”
He pledged that they would stand with Palestinians and would “bring back humanity, civility and freedoms to the world.”
Bilal Erdoğan, a member of TÜGVA's High Advisory Board, told the rally that thousands gathered on Galata Bridge showed the world that they would not keep quiet. “We will continue our struggle until Gaza, Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa are liberated,” he said.
“What is happening in Gaza, in Palestine, is not merely a humanitarian drama. It is also a testament to collapse of global order, bankruptcy of all international bodies supposed to have moral values,” he said, as he lamented international inaction in the face of genocide of Palestinians. “What happened in Gaza was not a war where one army battled another. It is not a matter of security. It is a genocide where a people, children, women, elderly people were consciously and systematically were killed. This genocide is not achieved merely through bombs. It is being carried out by causing people to starve, by depriving them of water, by blocking humanitarian aid access. We see a cruel order pleased with seeing people deprived of aid. May Allah ruin this thug Netanyahu thug who is behind this cruel mindset that hit new lows,” he told the rally.
Erdoğan said that while even war has rules, those rules are being ignored in Gaza, stressing that the Geneva Convention are clear and that targeting civilians, using disproportionate force and destroying life-sustaining infrastructure constitute war crimes.
“These crimes are not isolated incidents; they are continuous,” Erdoğan said. “They are directed by central administration’s decisions and carried out with the strong support of Israeli citizens. That is precisely why we say this is not a conflict. It is a modern policy of annihilation carried out by state power. Unfortunately, Palestinians are not regarded as human beings by Israel.”
Drawing attention to the global response following the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, Erdoğan said Russia faced military, economic and political sanctions and was barred from international sports competitions, song contests and numerous events. “It is a world where even Dostoyevsky was banned,” he said. “And on the other hand, a world embracing Netanyahu, whom we call the Hitler of the 21st century. This is the point Western civilization has reached.”
Erdoğan said Türkiye’s stance was not directed against a religion or a people. “Throughout history, no Muslim ruler has distinguished between people based on their faith,” he said, citing Jerusalem under Saladin and Ottoman rule as an example of Muslims, Christians and Jews living and worshipping together in peace. “Our issue is with Zionist ideology, which, like Nazism, devalues human life and denies others through claims of superiority,” he said.
Bilal Erdoğan said labeling people as collectively guilty based on identity, punishing civilian populations, systematically destroying living spaces and using hunger and fear as weapons recalled one of the darkest periods in human history. He said Zionism today manifests itself as “Israeli Nazism.”
“Humanity must confront this ideology,” he said. “Responsibility under international law does not rest solely with those who commit crimes, but also with those who fail to prevent them when they could have. Gaza has been flattened. The cost of this destruction cannot be imposed on the victims, nor shifted to third countries. Those who destroy must rebuild.”
Israel must be held accountable for war crimes, he said, adding that Gaza’s reconstruction should be financed through war reparations paid by Israel.
