President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has pledged that Türkiye would continue to support Palestinians and seek justice over the war in Gaza.
“As a country and administration that has made it its motto to shout out for justice, we stand tall, unbowed and unbending alongside the Palestinian people,” Erdoğan said at the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Awards ceremony in Ankara on Dec. 18.
During the event, the photography award was presented to Palestinian journalist Ali Jadallah, whom Erdoğan said had “exposed the brutal genocide in Gaza to the world through his photographs.”
“What his lens captured was not only the horrific scale of the massacre in Gaza, but also brought the Palestinian people's just, honorable and dignified resistance to the forefront of humanity's agenda in all its glory,” Erdoğan said. He noted that Jadallah’s photographs were used in the case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
“I congratulate my brother Ali Jadallah, who risked his life and pressed the shutter button of truth to document the oppression in Gaza with photographs, on behalf of myself, my nation and all the oppressed,” Erdoğan added.
The president also commemorated more than 280 members of the press whom he said were killed by Israel “for pointing their cameras at the atrocities in Gaza.”
“Today, I once again respectfully salute the heroic struggle of the journalists brutally murdered by Israel. No matter how much the Israeli government tries to silence and obstruct them, conscientious hearts and true journalists who pursue the truth continue to expose everything that is happening in Palestine at the cost of their lives," Erdoğan said.
"We will continue our struggle with determination on every front to ensure that what happened in Gaza is not forgotten and that justice is served."
