Erdogan: Muslims will never relinquish rights over Jerusalem

English , Qatar - قطر , / Wednesday, September 17th, 2025

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Source: Anadolu Agency

Ankara, September 17– Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged that Muslims will never back down from their rights over East Jerusalem and vowed continued support for Palestinians suffering under Israeli attacks.
Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of the new Turkish Foreign Ministry headquarters in Ankara, Erdogan said Türkiye would not allow Jerusalem to be “defiled by unholy hands.” He recalled the city’s 400 years under Muslim rule, where Christians and Jews lived in peace, stressing that Jerusalem must remain a center of coexistence and faith.
Erdogan reaffirmed Türkiye’s commitment to a sovereign Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. He sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declaring that Türkiye will stand with Gaza’s people against “brutal attacks,” and extend solidarity to others facing Israeli aggression from Syria to Yemen, Lebanon to Qatar.
He warned that those seeking to secure their future through oppression and genocide “will drown in the blood they have shed,” and described state-sponsored terror as a paralysis that must be broken.
Turning to foreign policy, Erdogan underlined Türkiye’s efforts to strengthen peace and cooperation across regions from the Balkans to Central Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific. He said Ankara’s guiding principles are stability, prosperity, and protection of allies’ rights.
On the new Foreign Ministry building, Erdogan described it as a modern landmark symbolizing Türkiye’s global role and bringing together the memory, present, and future of Turkish diplomacy under one roof.