ANKARA

Turkey will continue to show the world how the map of Palestine changed since the start of the Israeli occupation, the Turkish president said on Friday.

“The whole world should know what this terror state of Israel is,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of the seventh section of the North Marmara Motorway in Istanbul.

Highlighting Thursday’s UN General Assembly meeting on Palestine, Erdogan said a “successful session” was held under the presidency of Volkan Bozkir, a Turkish diplomat, and with the attendance of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, as well as other foreign ministers that stand together on the issue.

“They talked about how Palestine was occupied by this terror state of Israel since 1947, and was turned into a (small) piece of land today,” Erdogan said.

The president said all the oppressed people around the world are waiting for the day when “a strong Turkey will arise”.

A cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian resistance group, took effect at 2 a.m. Friday (2300GMT Thursday).

The Egyptian-brokered truce came after 11 days of Israeli airstrikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip.

A total of 232 Palestinians, including 65 children and 39 women, were killed during Israeli attacks on Gaza since May 10.

North Marmara Motorway

“The North Marmara Motorway, which we have fully put in service except for the last section added later on, will have a financial contribution of nearly 2.6 billion Turkish liras ($310.7 million) per year, including 1.6 billion liras ($191.2 million) from time and 830 million liras ($99.2 million) from fuel, as well as benefit of 351,000 tons of carbon emission reduction,” Erdogan told the ceremony.

He said the last addition covers a 45-kilometer-long (27.9-mile) distance, taking the total length of the project to 443 km (over 275 miles), and added that the highway is vital for Istanbul’s urban transportation as well as for surrounding cities.

Sections of the highway have been gradually completed and opened since 2016, with the sixth section opened on Dec. 19, 2020.

On Turkey’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic, the president said Turkey made the largest capacity increase in the field of health in last 14 months.

He said investments continued during the pandemic period, as a large part of North Marmara Motorway was also completed within this period.

Recalling reform packages introduced in various areas, Erdogan said the fourth judicial reform package will be submitted to the country’s assembly soon.

Last year, amid changes to Turkey’s economic administration, the nation’s leadership pledged further economic and legal reforms as well as reforms to rights and freedoms to carry the country forward.

On March 2, Erdogan announced a groundbreaking Human Rights Action Plan, as part of its judicial reforms, unveiling 11 main principles set to be carried out over the course of two years.

As part of a new economic reform package announced by Erdogan on March 12, a number of steps will be taken to strengthen Turkey's capital markets.​​​​​​​