AK Party Izmir Deputy, Chairman of the Türkiye-USA Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group, Dr. Mehmet Kasapoğlu wrote an article in which he conveyed his impressions upon his return from New York, where he went with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the 81st General Assembly of the United Nations.
In his article titled 'My New York Observations: Türkiye Taking Initiative in Global Issues', published today, Kasapoğlu; "As the Chairman of the Turkey-USA Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group, we were in New York between 20-23 September with the delegation led by our President on the margins of the 81st General Assembly of the United Nations. This critical process, which we followed step by step in the field on behalf of our Gazi Assembly, marked not a mere diplomatic traffic, but one of the historical turning points in which we observed first-hand Turkey's specific weight at the table, its uncompromising stance and its mind guiding world politics. In New York, The United Nations General Assembly hall, where representatives of more than 190 countries come together, is actually a showcase of diplomacy as well as a square where the world confronts the truth. Our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed the world from the United Nations podium for the 16th time. None of these speeches were a dry exchange of statistics or a mere repetition of diplomatic lines, because every time our President steps into the podium, he is a game-changer and puts the troubles of the oppressed and those who seek justice directly in the faces. "Our President again raised the voice of those who expect justice in his speech at the 81st General Assembly."
'THE MOST CRUCIAL PART OF HIS SPEECH WAS WITHOUT ANY DOUBT THE PAINTING IN GAZA.'
In his article, Kasapoğlu said, "In such an atmosphere where the global system is blocked and crises hurt at every corner, Turkey's stance always makes me think of this: Being able to put conscience and reason at the same table. Both the brave calls for justice made to the whole world in the corridors of the UN and a very grounded, rational diplomacy traffic carried out on the 100th anniversary of Turkish-American relations. Turkey achieves exactly this. In other words, while not stepping back even an inch from standing on the side of the right, on the other hand, its own national He pursues a foreign policy that protects his interests and thinks multi-dimensionally. The most striking part of our President's general assembly speech was undoubtedly the situation in Gaza. His description of Gaza as 'the world's largest children's cemetery' and 'the most shameful concentration camp of our time' brought the dimensions of the humanitarian tragedy to the agenda of the international public in its simplest form. Let's be fair; today, voices are rising against Israeli oppression all over the world, millions of people are taking to the streets against this brutality. The global conscience is literally rebelling. However, when we look at the arena of states, we see that no country has taken the initiative and taken the responsibility and risked paying the price as much as Turkey. Frankly, if everyone had taken a brave stance like Turkey, we would not be talking about these atrocities today. As a matter of fact, the words of our President, which he declared to the whole world from the UN podium: 'We will suffer if necessary, we will pay the price if necessary, but we will not remain silent in the face of injustice, we will never consent to oppression' are the clearest of this honorable stance. "Our President told the whole world that 74 thousand civilians were murdered in Gaza in the last 3 years alone, and that more than 1,500 innocent people were killed even after the ceasefire," he said.
HE EXPRESSED HIS VISION 'THE WORLD IS BIGGER THAN 5' ONCE AGAIN
"Of course, the issue is not only limited to Gaza," said Kasapoğlu and continued: "We are faced with a global system that is locked, has lost its capacity and has become inoperable. Our President once again expressed his vision of 'The world is bigger than 5', stating that the fate of more than 190 countries cannot be left between the two lips of only 5 permanent members. The 5 principles offered by the UN to overcome this state of paralysis actually offer a global prescription; international law is different for the weak and different for the strong." It should not be implemented and the culture of impunity must definitely end. When the global system is blocked, the solution lies in regional ownership. As a matter of fact, the Defense Alliance established by Türkiye with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia stands on the table as the most concrete indicator of Türkiye's will to find solutions to these problems from within. On the contrary, we are strengthening our commercial and strategic goals at the table with the same courage while defending global justice. The special event proved how the 2026-2027 period is a strategic turning point for both countries. Our President clearly explained the positive momentum that the sincere and exceptional dialogue he established with US President Donald Trump added to the relations between the two countries. "Thanks to this dialogue, we can achieve positive results through coordination in many crises from the Middle East to Asia. Our goal is to increase our trade volume with the USA to 100 billion dollars. We reached 38.6 billion dollars in 2025." We reached the 28 billion dollar level in just the first 8 months of 2026. We expect this figure to reach 40-43 billion dollars by the end of the year. Very open and warm invitations were made to our business world and even all American investors to take advantage of the unique opportunities Türkiye offers.
The intense work of our economic and foreign policy staff in New York was also a perfectly functioning team game. On the one hand, our economic management tells global fund managers about Turkey's resistance to shocks and how it overcame its vulnerabilities with the exit from the KKM and increasing reserves; On the other hand, we had diplomacy shuttling around multilateral summits. Five golden sectors that can be directly invested in, from the defense industry to tourism, from digital services to mobile games, were put on the table. With the same coordination, the power we have as the world's 16th largest economy, reaching an export capacity of 405 billion dollars, was shared with the American business world. In the multilateral leg of diplomacy, many critical summits were led, from the Türkiye-Syria-Saudi Arabia tripartite meeting held in Turkevi to the MIKTA and 8-party Palestine coordination meetings.
'WE WILL CONTINUE TO GROW OUR STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS ON THE BASIS OF COMMON GAINS'
