Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is claiming world leadership and defiantly said his country supports law, citing Syria, Libya, Cyprus and Nagorno-Karabakh as examples.
In a speech on Wednesday, Erdoğan claimed Turkey “has never been a tyrant” and that throughout history it has been a protector of “law.”
“In the thousands of years that have passed, we have overcome countless storms. By the permission of Allah, we have overcome these countless storms unscathed,” Erdoğan said.
“Because we have never been tyrants,” he said while omimtting the millions of Christians killed by the Ottomans in their hundreds of years of occupying the Balkans and Anatolia.
“Nor did we support tyrants. We did not surrender to tyrants,” he continued.
“Because we have always opened our arms to the victims, extended a helping hand and become one with those who claimed their rights,” he continued while ignoring that Turkish sponsorship of Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Syria and Iraq led to millions of refugees.
“We have chosen the classes of those who protect the law. This is what we have done in Syria, Libya, Karabakh, Somalia, Palestine, Iraq, Bosnia, Cyprus,” he continued.
Erdoğan made the claim despite the Turkish occupation of Cyprus violating several United Nations Security Council resolutions.
“And when we had to pay a price for them, we paid for it. But we never succumbed, we never knelt,” he said.
“Today, Turkey is moving towards its goal of regional and global leadership, not in words, but in steps on the ground,” Erdoğan added.
Bugün Türkiye, kendine her zamankinden çok daha fazla güvenmektedir. Bölgesel ve küresel liderlik hedefine doğru lafta değil bizzat sahada adım adım yürümektedir. pic.twitter.com/MpiUT2frpV
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) February 17, 2021
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