September 22, 2020
Erdogan calls for a Palestine State with East Jerusalem as its capital
Media Reports: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, said the conflict between Israel and Palestine could only be solved “with the establishment of an independent, sovereign, and contiguous state of Palestine based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.
"Countries that voice their intention to open an embassy in Jerusalem only serve to further complicate the (Palestine-Israel) conflict," Erdogan said.
He dismissed the Trump peace plan as a “document of surrender” and vowed not to support any peace proposal that Palestinians don’t back as well.
“Participation of some countries of the region in this game does not mean anything beyond serving Israel’s efforts to erode basic international parameters,” he said in a veiled reference to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have recently normalized their relations with Israel.
The issue of Palestine and the preservation of the historical status of Jerusalem and Haram al-Sharif remained significant concerns, he said.
The peace process could only continue if Israel immediately stopped illegal settlement activities and took steps towards a two-State solution.
“The order of occupation and oppression in Palestine, which is the bleeding wound of humanity, continues to hurt consciences,” Erdogan said.
“The dirty hand that reaches the privacy of Jerusalem, where the sacred places of the three great religions coexist, is constantly increasing its audacity,” he said.
He called upon the international community to support Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza in their struggle for an independent and geographically unified Palestinian State.
Israel's U.N. envoy who participated in the U.N. General Assembly in-person meetings walked out of the hall during Erdoğan's address that included harsh criticism of Israel.
Kashmir a ‘burning issue’: Turkish President Erdogan
Media Reports: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told the UN General Assembly that the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan was a “burning issue”, and called for resolving it through dialogue.’
In a speech made via video-link to the 193-member Assembly’s landmark 75th session, Erdogan said that steps taken following the abolition of the special status of Jammu-Kashmir further complicated the problem.
“We are in favor of solving this issue through dialogue, within the framework of the United Nations resolutions and especially in line with the expectations of the people of Kashmir,” the Turkish leader added.
At last year's General Assembly meeting, President Erdogan and Mahatir Mohammed, the then-Prime Minister of Malaysia, joined Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to raise the Kashmir issue.
The Kashmir dispute between is on the agenda of the UN Security Council, which has adopted at least 11 resolutions since 1948 that call for an impartial plebiscite to determine the wishes of the people in the disputed state.
OIC group seeks UN intervention in stopping rights violations in Kashmir
NEW YORK: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir has urged the United Nations (UN) to call upon New Delhi and ask them to halt human rights violations in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
At its informal meeting on September 21 in New York, the Contact Group said India should also be urged upon to implement UN Security Council resolutions which call for a plebiscite to enable the people of the IOJK to exercise their right to self-determination.
The members of the contact group voiced deep concerns at continued violations by India of fundamental human rights in the occupied territory.
Conveying the special message of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Munir Akram, said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is engaged in systematically engineering a demographic change in the IOJK through new domicile laws.
The issuance of 1.6 million domicile certificates is meant to change the demography of the occupied territory from a Muslim majority into Hindu majority territory.
He also said that the status of Urdu is also being changed under new legislation by India to obliterate the Muslim identity of IOJK.
Qureshi in his special message stressed that it was imperative for New Delhi to immediately lift its inhumane military siege, remove restrictions on communications, movement, and peaceful assembly, release incarcerated political leaders and reverse new domicile laws.
The meeting, based on a request by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, was attended by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Munir Akram, and the OIC’s Permanent Representatives, namely Saudi Arabia, Niger and Azerbaijan. Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev, the Permanent Representative of the OIC Observer Mission to the UN, attended the event in place of OIC Secretary-General Yousef Bin Ahmad Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Othaimeen.
Meanwhile, in a Twitter post on Saturday, the OIC’s human rights body, the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission urged the international community to establish a commission of inquiry under the UN “to investigate these extrajudicial killings and grave human rights violations and urge India to repeal Armed Forces Special Powers Act.”
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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