Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told the COP31 Leaders’ Summit in Antalya on Wednesday that no one who witnesses the suffering in Gaza can escape responsibility, and that making a show of power over the suffering of Gaza’s children is a lack of conscience.
Erdoğan said: “Let me state this here candidly. No one who sees, who knows of, or who witnesses such a shameful picture of humanity can possibly escape responsibility. I believe that together, from Antalya, we must give voice to the shared conscience of humanity and make the following call: making a show of power at the expense of the suffering of children in Gaza, and I speak very plainly, doing that is an act of weakness, it is helplessness, and above all, it is lack of conscience.”
Erdoğan was opening the two-day leaders’ summit at the COP31 climate conference, which Türkiye is hosting in Antalya with leaders from 95 countries. He spoke in Turkish; the audio is the summit’s English simultaneous interpretation.
Video: COP31 Türkiye
