President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday said no one can or will be able to inflict a second "Nakba," or "catastrophe," on Palestinian people, rejecting U.S President Donald Trump’s plan to expel Gazans from their devastated homeland and let the U.S. take control.
"We do not consider the proposal to exile the Palestinians from the lands they have lived in for thousands of years as something to be taken seriously," he said at the "Türkiye-Malaysia Strategic Cooperation in the New Century" meeting in Kuala Lumpur alongside Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
"No one has the power to force the Palestinian people to experience a second Nakba," he added, referring to the mass displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
Trump's proposal to oust more than 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza and redevelop it prompted a global backlash that has enraged the Arab and Muslim world.
On Tuesday, the U.S. president announced his proposal at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who hailed it as "the first good idea that I've heard" on what to do with the tiny war-torn territory.
The billionaire businessperson said he would make the war-battered territory "unbelievable" by removing unexploded bombs and rubble and economically redeveloping it.
But he has not said how he envisaged removing its inhabitants.
"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We'll own it," Trump said.
But Erdoğan strongly dismissed it as worthless.
“Instead of looking for a place for Gazans he cannot uproot from their land, Netanyahu should look for a source to compensate for the $100 billion damage he caused in the Palestinian enclave,” he said.
"Homes, lands and workplaces seized by the Israeli state and the rogue settlers must be returned to the rightful Palestinian owners," he added.
Türkiye has been fiercely critical of Israel’s brutal offensive in Gaza, which it and others say amounts to genocide. It has also slammed many Western allies for their support of Israel. It suspended trade relations with Israel in May 2024 in protest and formally applied to join South Africa's initiative to have Israel tried for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Mentioning Türkiye’s efforts to rebuild its southeastern cities hit by twin deadly earthquakes two years ago, Erdoğan suggested reviving Gaza was possible “in a very short time as long as the costs, which Gazans deserve to receive, are extracted from Israel.”
“Similarly, homes, lands and businesses stolen by the Israeli state and settlers must be returned to their Palestinian owners,” he added.
Erdoğan assured Türkiye was also continuing to work for an independent Palestinian state with territorial integrity and East Jerusalem as its capital.
“I believe we owe all of this to the people of Palestine as a fraternal duty,” he said.
Erdoğan called for a trust-based global system that “embraces everyone and values differences as a source of richness is not a choice but an obligation.”
"From economy to diplomacy, from trade to security, we need a new approach and global order to solve problems," he said.
“A structure that excludes one-fourth of the world population cannot be expected to provide security or serve global stability and peace,” Erdoğan said, referring to his reform mantra the “world is bigger than five” about members of the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to veto any initiative aimed at stopping aggressive countries such as Israel.
Ankara repeatedly accused the U.N. of failing to sanction Israel over its war on Gaza and deadly push into Lebanon and Syria since Oct. 7, 2023, when the latest round of the conflict broke out.
The Turkish president repeated his criticism of the world body, saying: “The war on Gaza has demonstrated the weakness of the international community. The UNSC has failed to put a stop to Israel’s massacres that cost the lives of over 61,000 Palestinians in Gaza.”
“The West has failed its test over 471 days,” he added.
