The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will hold a convention on the future of Palestine on Tuesday. The conference entitled "Future of Palestine" will include guests from abroad, including Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, the party's vice chair for foreign affairs Zafer Sırakaya said on Friday.
Sırakaya said the role of international law in the future of Palestine will also be discussed during the event, to be held in the capital of Ankara. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is also chair of the AK Party, will address the conference.
Decrying the failure of both the U.N. and humanity in the situation in Gaza, Sırakaya said it is "extremely important and valuable to ensure a cease-fire in Gaza quickly, to realize the exchange of hostages and prisoners as soon as possible and to establish a sovereign and independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital with geographical integrity within the 1967 borders. "Flouting a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a cross-border incursion by the. Palestinian group Hamas last October. More than 42,000 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and some 98,000 injured, according to local health authorities. The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.
The conference will be streamed online in Turkish, English and Arabic. Turkish parliament's foreign affairs committee chairman and former vice president Fuat Oktay will moderate the first session of the event which will focus on the future of Palestine and diplomacy. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Jordan's Safadi will speak at this session. The second session will be moderated by former foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu who currently serves as a lawmaker in the AK Party and will focus on the role of politics and parliament in the future of Palestine. It will be attended by AK Party deputy chair Efkan Ala and foreign diplomats. The third session will be moderated by Cüneyt Yüksel, an AK Party lawmaker who heads the parliament's Justice Committee. It will handle the role of international law in the future of Palestine.
NATO member Türkiye has been a traditional ally to Palestine but the more brutal Israeli attacks became, the harsher Ankara has made its criticism in the past year. It has condemned what it calls genocide, halted all trade with Israel and applied to join a genocide case against Israel at the World Court, which Israel rejects.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says he is sad to see Muslim countries failing to take a more active stance against Israel, urging them to take economic, diplomatic and political measures to pressure Tel Aviv into accepting a cease-fire.
In addition to delivering humanitarian aid, the government has sought to rally international organizations, including the United Nations, NATO and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to both restrain Israel and encourage cooperation between Palestinian factions, most notably between Hamas and the Fatah movement.
The Republic of Türkiye, whose predecessor the Ottoman Empire once controlled Palestinian territories, has been a staunch supporter of Palestinians against Israeli aggression which has now expanded to Lebanon. Ankara is worried that the Israeli attacks may further spill over to regional countries and eventually target Türkiye.
Political pundits say there is no end in sight to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict after several attempts at cease-fire collapsed due to Israel's ongoing attacks. Although the Netanyahu administration of Israel appears to have locked its sights on Lebanon now, Israeli troops occasionally continue targeting the Gaza Strip, with indiscriminating attacks killing dozens almost daily in civilian-populated areas. Türkiye advocated a two-state solution for an end to the conflict, something Israel repeatedly rejected.
