ISTANBUL 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that the financial cost of Israel’s destruction of Gaza is estimated at $100 billion, adding that "this heavy bill” falls squarely on Prime Minister Netanyahu's government for its 15-month war on the enclave.

"The Israeli administration must first be charged with the destruction it has caused and with this, the reconstruction process in Gaza should begin," Erdogan said alongside Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at the Türkiye-Malaysia Strategic Cooperation in the New Century meeting in the capital Kuala Lumpur, on an official visit.

Instead of looking for a place for Gazans he cannot uproot from their own land, Netanyahu should look for resources to cover the $100 billion in damage he caused in the Palestinian enclave, the Turkish president said.

Gaza can be back on its feet "in a very short time," as long as its money, "which is already the right of the people of Gaza, is collected from Israel," Erdogan said.

"Homes, lands, and workplaces seized by the Israeli state and rogue settlers must be returned to their rightful Palestinian owners," he added.

Nobody will be able to inflict a second Nakba on the Palestinian people, he said, referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through their violent displacement and dispossession of their land, property, and belongings in 1948 and the following years.

"It is of great importance that we increase our efforts for the establishment of an independent and geographically integrated Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. I believe that all of these are both a duty of brotherhood and a debt of conscience to the oppressed Palestinian people," Erdogan underlined.

A ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal began in Gaza on Jan. 19, following 15 months of Israel’s genocidal war that killed over 48,000 Palestinians and reduced the enclave to rubble.

Praising Malaysia's support for Gaza and the Palestinian cause, Erdogan said: "I welcome Malaysia's resolute stance in the fight against Islamophobia. We are also determined to advance our relations with Malaysia within the scope of the D8 and increase economic development cooperation."

"From the economy to diplomacy, from trade to security, we need a new approach and a new global order to solve problems," he stressed.

In an event awarding Erdogan an honorary doctorate, Malaysian Premier Anwar said Türkiye is a country that has significantly increased its national consciousness and honor, and has become a geopolitical power.

Turkish-Malaysian relations

Stressing that 2024 marked the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Türkiye and Malaysia, Erdogan said he hopes these close and friendly relations will continue stronger in the future, gaining momentum in every field.

Underlining that the 2024 trade volume between Ankara and Kuala Lumpur exceeded $5 billion in in line with determined targets, Erdogan said they hope to increase the trade volume to $10 billion in a "balanced" way.

"We want to increase our cooperation in every sector from semiconductor technologies to automotive, from aircraft technologies to civil simulators, and to make progress with Malaysia in various areas. Our countries have the exceptional feature of being gateways to Asia and Europe. In this respect, we want the airway connections between us to be even stronger," he highlighted.

Saying they aim to strengthen ties and cooperation with the continent as part of Türkiye's Asia Anew Initiative, Erdogan added: "Malaysia has always had an exceptional place in this initiative of ours. We raised our relations with Malaysia to the level of Strategic Partnership in 2014 and to the level of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2022. We started to strengthen our cooperation with concrete steps in a manner befitting the deep-rooted and close relations between our peoples. We aim to develop our relations with an approach based on technological cooperation and a vision of joint production."

He added that Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has a significant facility in Malaysia providing employment opportunities for more than 100 young Malaysian engineers.

"A second batch of coastal duty ships has begun to be built with the cooperation of our defense industry companies. We have significant cooperation on (TAI-designed and built) ANKA drones," Erdogan added.

Türkye rejects 'unjust' world order

Stressing that the world order created after World War II has grown insufficient to address current global challenges and that Israel's war on Gaza also laid bare the failure of the current international system, Erdogan expressed his country's objections to this unjust order "where might always makes right."

"Türkiye believes that, first of all, that a structure in which the Islamic world, whose population exceeds 2 billion, is not represented, cannot distribute justice because it is not fair,” he said. "A structure that excludes a quarter of the world's population cannot be expected to distribute security and serve global stability and peace.”

Stating that the same applies to other groups not represented in the global governance system, he said that building a trust-based system that embraces everyone and values differences as a source of richness is not a choice but an obligation.

"From the economy to diplomacy, from trade to security, we need a new approach and a new global order to solve problems," Erdogan underlined.

A fairer world in terms of economic, commercial, social and international representation is possible, even if the "privileged club" that benefits from the current system does not want it, he added.