Türkiye will not abandon friends, Erdoğan says amid Iran war

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 26 pledged that Türkiye would stand by its allies and not abandon friendly nations, amid joint attacks by the U.S. and Israel on Israel and its responses to the regional conflict.

"Let everyone be certain of this: We neither discriminate among our brothers and neighbors nor stand idly by while our brothers suffer," Erdoğan said at an event in the capital Ankara.

He described the region as enduring “the most painful days of the past century” due to attacks on Iran and the Islamic republic's retaliatory strikes against U.S. assets in the Gulf.

“As Türkiye and the Turkish nation, we will not abandon the peoples we consider friends and brothers in good times when they face hardship,” he said.

“We reject any action or discourse that would fuel hostility among brotherly peoples or support Zionism’s ‘divide and rule’ plans targeting our region.”

Erdoğan called the ongoing conflict “Israel’s war,” adding that “all of humanity is paying the price for it.”

“From here, with a heavy heart, I ask: What difference is there between the tears shed in Isfahan and Tehran and those shed in Erbil, Baghdad, Beirut, and Riyadh?... In the eyes of these aggressors, who have shown no regard for any principle, value, or norm for 27 days, does it make any difference whether we are Shia or Sunni, Turkish, Kurdish, Arab or Persian?” he said.

"Once the death-dealing roar of bombs and missiles has ceased, we will live together again in this region. I believe no one should forget this reality."

Erdoğan pledged that Türkiye would not “succumb to the hate speech, war mongering and climate of conflict surrounding it.”

“We will act with the justified confidence that comes from standing on the right side of history and conscience, and we will never lose our common sense or composure,” he said.

"We will not back down from our foreign policy, which is centered on peace, stability and tranquility for all."