President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at the "TRT World Forum 2026 Official Opening Ceremony" held at the Istanbul Congress Center:
We are going through a painful period in which power competition is becoming increasingly harsher, rules are being ignored, the rule-based system is seriously eroded, and values are almost in a landslide. Global governance mechanisms remain inadequate and dysfunctional in solving the problems we face. Norms and principles are being trampled on. This year's forum will be titled "The Decentralized World: Who Leads When the Rules Fail?" In this respect, I find it extremely accurate to organize it under the title. We see this truth: Today's problems cannot be solved with yesterday's prescriptions.
We are all closely following the deadlocks of the current international system designed by the powerful and privileged owners of 81 years ago. It seems that the system is on the verge of bankruptcy. The situation has become such that cruelty and evil have become commonplace, while those calling for peace and common sense remain in the minority. The largest genocide of modern times took place in Gaza.
Since October 2023, 75 thousand people in Gaza, most of them children and women, have been brutally murdered in Israeli attacks. This number corresponds to almost 10 times the number of martyrs in the Srebrenica genocide, which was committed before the eyes of the whole world. In the past year alone, 1500 of our brothers and sisters lost their lives. Nearly 5,500 Palestinians were injured in the same attacks. Even today, in Gaza, which has been turned into ruins, people are struggling to hold on to life in ruined houses and piles of rubble. Settler terrorism, which aims to force Palestinians to migrate from their homeland where they have lived for centuries, becomes more reckless every day under the indifferent gaze of the modern world. International structures whose duty is to ensure stability are watching from the stands what is happening in Gaza, as in Rwanda, Srebrenica and many other blood-soaked places.
The program, held at the Istanbul Congress Center, started with a video showing Türkiye's support for the oppressed people, through the story of 17-year-old Bana Alabed and her family, who announced the massacre in Aleppo, Syria, to the world through social media. Alabed, who came on stage after the screening, presented a butterfly symbolizing the innocence of children to President Erdoğan and said, "Hopefully, we want to see you again." In the program, Presidential Communications Director Burhanettin Duran and TRT General Director Prof. Dr. Mehmet Zahid Sobacı also gave a speech.
Bana Alabed, who announced the Aleppo massacre to the world, was President Erdoğan's guest at the Social Complex when she was 7 years old. The young girl from Aleppo met with Erdoğan again after 10 years. Alabed said, "President Erdoğan is a great role model for me, I wish to be a great leader like him in the future."
It is possible to prolong rights violations, most of which are not even recorded. What justification could legitimize such human slaughter, occupation and usurpation? What justifications can there be for raining death on people whose homes have already been destroyed and forcing people to migrate? We all know that there is no justification for this state of insanity or the helplessness displayed in the face of this state of insanity. There is a clear cruelty that everyone with a conscience, whether Muslim, Christian or Jew, should object to. And this oppression fuels anger and hatred throughout our region. They do not take any steps other than watching human tragedies with concern or meeting them with concern. As the famous Iranian proverb says, "They sit, talk and disperse." Unfortunately, the Gaza Peace Agreement, which we helped to sign, is not implemented. The principle of keeping the pacta, which is the basis of international relations, is not implemented. Everyone should now understand that no problem can be solved this way. Everyone should see that the climate of resentment and hatred will only grow in this way.
Dear friends, the late Ayşe Şasa, one of the most valuable intellectuals our country has produced in the last century, expresses her journey to truth as follows: "I should be able to tell a meaningful and honorable story to the Creator on the Day of Judgment." Likewise, it is not easy to defend peace, justice and human dignity in today's world, where the strong are right, not the strong. Only the brave can fight this difficult struggle. Only those who are determined and who put their lives on the line when necessary can walk this rugged path. Only those who have a plane tree called compassion in their hearts can hear the voices of the oppressed and victimized and make them heard to the world.
