Turkey Ready with Diplomacy to Stop Israel's Attacks: Erdoğan

"We are doing everything we can to stop (Israel's) inhumane aggression against Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and our neighbor Iran," Erdoğan said, speaking during the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting in Ankara.

"We are closely following Israel's terrorist attacks against Iran. All our institutions are on alert regarding the possible effects of these attacks on Turkey," he added.

Saying that it is entirely “natural, legitimate and lawful” for Iran to defend itself against Israel's “banditry and state terrorism,” Erdoğan said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long surpassed Hitler. “We hope their fates will not be the same.”

On June 13, Israel launched large-scale attacks targeting Iran's nuclear facilities across several cities, as well as high-ranking military command centers.

Iranian media reported Wednesday that the death toll from Israeli airstrikes across Tehran and other populated areas has risen to 585, with at least 1,326 people injured since the attacks started last week.

In retaliation, Iran's military launched ballistic missiles at Israel, killing 24 people and wounding over 500, according to reports.

Numerous countries, including Turkey, have condemned Israel's actions.

Pointing to global tensions and increasing conflicts, Erdoğan said that Turkey must be united – the steps of which have been laid through the terror-free Turkey initiative.

The initiative was launched by government ally Devlet Bahçeli, head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who called on the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan to appeal to the PKK to lay down arms last year.

Soon, his call evolved into a new initiative that saw Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmakers visiting Öcalan in the island prison where he is incarcerated in the Marmara Sea. As a result and in a landmark development, the PKK last month announced its dissolution and the end of its four-decade terror campaign that cost tens of thousands of lives in Turkey, as well as in Iraq and Syria.

Opposition corruption

Erdoğan also criticized the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) for several corruption cases within the party and especially the municipalities the party holds across Turkey.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, along with dozens of others, is currently under arrest on charges of corruption related to his two-time tenure as mayor of the city, as well as his previous tenure as mayor of the city’s Beylikdüzü district.

Prosecutors say he led a criminal network profiting from bribes from businesses and tender rigging, among other offenses. His alleged cohorts, from municipality employees to owners of companies who were awarded lucrative contracts, were among the detainees and those formally arrested on March 22.

The Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul said several witnesses came out in the case against the alleged Imamoğlu-led network, disclosing a scheme of bribery that started after Imamoğlu took office in 2019.

Source: Daily Sabah