The Turkish Parliament on Friday held an emergency session to debate Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, with lawmakers accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan skipping the session.
The emergency session was called by the seven political parties in parliament earlier this week: the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the pro-Kurdish Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), the New Path parliamentary group, which comprises several small opposition parties, the Islamist New Welfare Party (YRP), the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP), the Labor Party (EMEP) and the Democrat Party, to discuss what they described as a “massacre” in Gaza as well as steps to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians, who have been under Israeli bombardment for almost two years.
The emergency session interrupted the parliament’s summer recess, which began on July 21 and is scheduled to end on October 1.
For the emergency session scarves bearing the Palestinian flag were placed on lawmakers’ seats. All members of parliament wore the scarves around their necks.
Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, who opened the session, called for Israel to be suspended from all international organizations, saying the country’s actions against Palestinians “exceeded the dimension of a genocide.” He said nearly 70,000 people, most of them women and children, had been killed in Gaza and pledged Turkey’s support for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state.
Israel launched its campaign after a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, that killed 1,206 people and led to the taking of about 250 hostages.
The Gaza health ministry says more than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the conflict began.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told lawmakers that Turkey had cut all trade ties with Israel and closed its ports, claiming that no other country had taken such steps. He accused Israel of deliberately blocking humanitarian aid, using starvation as a weapon and seeking to force Palestinians out of Gaza.
Erdoğan has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, accused it of committing “genocide” in Gaza and comparing its government to that of Nazi Germany, but his government frequently faces accusations of hypocrisy from opponents and Palestinian activists for allegedly maintaining some commercial ties with Israel despite a trade ban it imposed on Israel in May 2024.
Erdoğan’s far-right ally, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli, attended Friday’s session although he earlier objected to the need for a such a meeting, saying there is nothing else left to be talked on the “tragedy in Gaza.”
Musavat Dervişoğlu, leader of the İYİ (Good) Party, accused Erdoğan’s government of failing to act meaningfully against Israel while condemning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign in Gaza. He also criticized Ankara’s past ties to US policy in the Middle East.
Dervişoğlu said it was South Africa, not Turkey, that brought a case against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. “Was there no Turkish lawyer capable of filing such a case?” he asked. “As someone who comes from a state tradition and knows how the system works, I want to know: Were there people inside who resisted opening this case?”
South Africa launched a case against Israel at the ICJ in December 2023 alleging that Israeli forces were committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Dervişoğlu also criticized the government for failing to join the countries delivering airdropped humanitarian aid to Gaza. “I ask again, knowing the government’s fondness for aircraft, has Turkey been unable to develop this capability in 25 years? Does Turkey lack the power and capacity to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza from the air, or is it that those who govern Turkey have no intention of doing so?” he asked.
The emergency session in the Turkish Parliament was held amid the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where a famine was declared for the first time in parts of the enclave since Israel allows only limited humanitarian aid.
On August 22 the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an international body that assesses food emergencies, declared famine in parts of the Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City. The IPC defines famine as a situation in which at least one in five households suffers extreme food shortages, leading to critical levels of malnutrition and death.
Meanwhile, two prominent human rights organizations in Israel last month joined a number of international rights organizations, UN human rights experts and scholars in accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel released separate reports based on studies of the past 22 months of conflict, saying Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and that the country’s Western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it.