ANKARA: By killing over 14,000 innocent children in Gaza, Israel has already outdone Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, the Turkish president said on Wednesday.
With unconditional support from the West, Israel is carrying out massacres that are marks of shame in human history, both in Gaza and the West Bank, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told a Justice and Development (AK) Party group meeting in the Turkish parliament, Anadolu Agency reported.
Saying that no one can question Turkiye's sensitivity to the Palestinian issue, Erdogan added that the Palestinian cause gave his life new meaning.
"As long as God grants me life, I will continue to defend the struggle of Palestine, and will be the voice of the oppressed Palestinian people," Erdogan added.
Comparing the struggle of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas to the Turkish War of Independence over 100 years ago, Erdogan said: "We are well aware that there is a price to pay for saying this."
Erdogan told how 15 years ago, at the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he challenged the Israeli leadership and its oppression of Palestinians, in an encounter that went viral, by objecting, "One minute!"
"When no one else would speak, we stood up and said: 'Hamas is not a terrorist organisation, but a resistance group.' We presented maps at the UN showing how Israel has gradually occupied the lands of Palestine over the past 70 years," he added.
"We stood by our Palestinian brothers and sisters in every way, especially during the most difficult times. We have mobilised all our resources for Palestine, for the oppressed people of Gaza," Erdogan stressed.
Erdogan reiterated Turkiye determination to courageously defend Palestine's struggle for independence under any and all circumstances.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct 7, 2023, killing nearly 34,000 Palestinians and injuring nearly 77,000 others amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.–BERNAMA