Esra Tekin
26 March 2024•Update: 26 March 2024
ISTANBUL
In recent years the world has been seeing "the bitterest examples" showing how the so-called great powers and global organizations under their influence benefit no one, said Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday.
"We are witnessing the most tragic examples of how so-called great states and the international organizations they control do no good to anyone," Erdogan said at an election rally in Türkiye’s central Aksaray province, with local elections less than a week away.
The president said tensions in the region are escalating everywhere from the Balkans to the Caucasus, citing the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has intensified in recent months, as well as Israel's atrocities on people in the Gaza Strip, hitting the old and young alike, and both men and women.
Erdogan has decried the impotence of many international bodies, in particular the UN Security Council, in tackling international crises, pointing to its exceedingly unrepresentative makeup as one culprit.
Türkiye's local elections, held nationwide every five years, are set for next Sunday.
‘Wherever there’s oppression or occupation, Türkiye steps in’
Later, campaigning in the Yozgat province, Erdogan said wherever there is injustice, Türkiye steps in.
He also said that Türkiye, as a “strong, courageous and resilient” country, plays an active role in preserving peace in the Balkans, helping to end the three-decade occupation in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region in the southern Caucasus and working to prevent a coup in formerly war-torn Libya.
He also said that Türkiye crushed all the country’s enemies, from terrorist organizations to “treasonous networks.”
Stating that Türkiye cornered “bloody terrorist groups” in both northern Iraq and northern Syria, Erdogan said, “We crushed them in Gabar, we crushed them in Tendurek, we crushed them in Bestler-Dereler and we are still crushing them,” citing regions of Türkiye where terror groups once took shelter.
PKK terrorists often hide out in northern Iraq and Syria to plot cross-border attacks in Türkiye.
Since 2016, Ankara has launched a trio of successful anti-terror operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019).
“We cleared the terrorists and now we’re extracting thousands and tens of thousands of barrels of oil every day (from Gabar),” Erdogan added.
