By Busra Nur Cakmak and Burak Dag
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey will continue to raise its voice when it sees the persecution of innocents, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday.
“There is no such thing as ‘Might always makes right.’ Turkey exists to build a world where the righteous are strong,” Erdogan said in an address marking Turkey’s May 19 Commemoration of Ataturk, Youth and Sports Day.
He said some people “tell us, 'Erdogan shouldn’t speak this way.' What should I do, clap? We will shout with the loudest voice where we see the persecution of innocents.”
Hundreds of innocents, many of them women and children, are being killed by high-tech weapons, he said, and added about the current Israeli attacks on Palestinians: “Not only is it children who died in Jerusalem and Gaza, but humanity itself.”
“If we remain silent in the face what is happening in Jerusalem today, we know that other holy cities will be threatened tomorrow,” Erdogan also said.
“Hatred, conflict, and cruelty abound in most of the places where our ancestors lived peacefully under the umbrella of justice and security,” he added, referring to the Ottoman centuries of peace in modern-day Israel and occupied and blockaded Palestinian territories.
“If a price has to be paid to resist the persecution of innocents and protect the oppressed, we will never hesitate to pay it,” he said.
– 'Laying the groundwork for their own ruin'
"Those who turn a deaf ear to the cries of the innocents under Israel's persecution are actually laying the groundwork for their own ruin,” Erdogan warned.
He added Turkey will continue to fight against those who fill its region with blood and fire just as it continues to fight against terrorist groups who threaten Turkey.
Since May 10, at least 221 Palestinians have been killed, including 63 children and 36 women, and 1,530 others injured by Israeli attacks across the blockaded territory, according to the Gaza-based Health Ministry.
Twelve Israelis have also been killed in Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Recent tensions that started in East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan spread to Gaza as a result of Israeli assaults on worshippers at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
