Türkiye’s top metropolis Istanbul is gearing up to host a march on New Year’s Day for Gaza as it suffers under Israeli bombardment and to condemn terrorism weeks after a PKK attack martyred a dozen Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq.
Members of the National Willpower Platform, made up of 29 nongovernmental organizations including the Turkish Youth Foundation (TÜGVA), have called citizens out to Galata Bridge straddling Istanbul’s historic peninsula for the massive rally on Jan. 1.
“We are aware we’re standing at a historic turning point and in such a time, we will raise our voice and spread our message,” TÜGVA President Ibrahim Beşinci said at a news conference in Istanbul earlier this week.
Referring to the attacks by the PKK terrorist group on Turkish military and civilian targets over the past four decades of its bloody campaign, Beşinci said the “willpower” behind these was “the same willpower behind the genocide in Gaza today.”
“The joint struggle of our nongovernmental organizations here is the struggle of humanity and justice,” Beşinci said, urging "all parents, children, brothers and sisters, nongovernmental organizations and institutions to be Palestine’s voice" on the Galata Bridge at 8:30 a.m. on the morning of Jan. 1.
Bilal Erdoğan, the son of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is a member of TÜGVA’s high advisory board, also highlighted the connection between the Palestinian cause and terrorism in and around Türkiye.
“We want to declare to the world that we are aware the martyring of our soldiers and what is happening in Gaza are interconnected,” Bilal Erdoğan said and stressed: “The Turkish people stand next to Palestine and know it wasn’t easy to earn this land. We will not allow anyone to play games here."
Berat Albayrak, Türkiye’s former energy and natural resources minister, also called on citizens to attend the march on Galata Bridge.
“We are inviting you all to Galata Bridge to share the pain of our fallen soldiers and martyrs in Gaza and to show the world our stance against this cruelty,” Albayrak, along with his wife Esra Albayrak, daughter to President Erdoğan, said in a video message via TÜGVA’s social media account.
Next to him, Esra Albayrak stressed that Türkiye “refuses to surrender to a regime that systematically murders children.”
“No ideology in the world can justify this horrible genocide. We are inviting all to question the global system in the face of this unfolding brutality,” she said.
Pro-Palestine rallies have been a staple of big Turkish cities since Israel began pounding on the blockaded Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, killing at least 20,000 people, in response to a Hamas incursion on southern Israel. Starting as early as the same day in front of the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul, Turkish citizens have joined millions around the world almost weekly in protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over the past two months.
Türkiye has been a staunch defender of the Palestinian cause and continues diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict. President Erdoğan too has called for an independent Palestinian state and spearheads efforts for a lasting truce.
