Erdogan steps up diplomatic efforts to end war in Ukraine

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday promised the UN General Assembly to step up “diplomatic efforts” to “end the war” in Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in February 2022.

“Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, we have tried to keep our Russian and Ukrainian friends at the table, based on the idea that there will be no winners in the war and no losers in the world,” Erdogan said, speaking at a high level. The debate at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, which began on Tuesday in New York with the participation of dozens of heads of state and government from around the world.

Integrating his words into his “new peace agenda,” Erdogan also pledged that he would continue to fight for the extension of the grain agreement suspended by Moscow and preventing seeds from being sent to various parts of the world. .

“We have already managed to export 33 billion tons of grain through the Black Sea to the countries most in need, and we want both sides to come to the negotiating table so that the process can continue,” he added, considering himself the main mediator in the negotiations. dispute.

In a speech that lasted more than 35 minutes, Erdogan made no mention of Turkey’s relationship with the United States or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but without mentioning the name of the country, Sweden, denounced the existence of states that “they are playing with fire” by allowing “incitement to hatred ” and “acts of racism and Islamophobia.”

“We are the country that has fought the hardest against the Islamic State group, and we are fed up with this conflict that has spread to the Middle East, North Africa, the Sahel and Syria. We are also fed up with the hypocrisy of some countries. which continue to exacerbate hate speech and acts of racism by promoting Islamophobia,” he said.

Turkey has blocked Sweden’s entry into NATO because it believes Stockholm supports the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK, which Istanbul considers a terrorist group) and criticizes the fact that some extremists are publicly burning Islam’s holy book in the Swedish capital. Koran.

Erdogan also called for a new world order, which should begin with reform of the UN Security Council, which includes China, the US, France, the UK and Russia, as it “no longer reflects the reality of the 21st century” Erdogan “demanded” an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and advocated a solution to the conflict by two independent states.

“As long as Palestine is not an independent state, there will be no peace in Israel,” the Turkish president said, stressing that it was “fundamentally” important to preserve Jerusalem’s status as a Palestinian capillary network.

Erdogan also stressed that Ankara is creating conditions for deepening relations with Egypt, which is “an important step towards stability in the Middle East,” and asked for international recognition, in particular from the 193 UN member states and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.