President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in a speech at the International Justice Summit, stated that justice is the foundation upon which the state is built, and that where conscience, equity, and equality are abandoned, there can be no talk of justice.
Erdoğan said that the international system has suffered an erosion of trust and credibility, and that the current order is neither equitable nor sustainable. Noting that international agreements and court rulings are not being implemented, Erdoğan recalled that the blockage in Hormuz remains unresolved, that the Russia-Ukraine war has been ongoing for 4.5 years, and pointed to the developments in Yemen and Sudan.
Touching on Gaza, Erdoğan said that more than 75 thousand Gazans have been killed, schools and hospitals have been bombed, the ceasefire established last year has been violated by Israel, and holy sites in Jerusalem have come under attack. He stated that Israel views the region’s tranquility and peace as a threat to itself.
Reiterating his “The World Is Bigger Than 5” message, Erdoğan noted that they will continue to defend the rights of the oppressed and the victims. Asking participants for cooperation in the fight against transnational crime, Erdoğan expressed that those who act outside the law should not be safe no matter where they hide.
Why it matters
The speech serves to keep these debates on the diplomatic agenda by bringing the state of the ceasefire in Gaza and the allegations that international court rulings are not being implemented to an international platform themed around justice. The fact that Hormuz, Russia-Ukraine, Yemen, and Sudan are mentioned within the same framework shows that the criticism is directed not at a single crisis but at the functioning of the global system. The request for cooperation from participants in the fight against transnational crime indicates that the speech conveys a concrete demand to the countries it addresses, going beyond an abstract assessment. The reiteration of the “The World Is Bigger Than 5” message, meanwhile, demonstrates that the long-voiced objection to the current security architecture continues. In contrast, the text contains no mechanism or timetable for how these demands will be put into practice; how the speech will be received by the participating countries remains the fundamental open question.