Islamophobia statement from Erdoğan in New York

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President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chairperson Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in his speech at the evening dinner organized by the Turkish-American National Steering Committee (TASC) at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, spoke about what he claimed to be the rising Islamophobia.

Erdoğan stated, "The Turkish-American community is also negatively affected by the rising wave of racism. No state that respects human rights and freedoms should remain silent in the face of this frenzy. Today, these attacks mostly targeting Muslims are likely to turn against groups with different origins, languages, cultures, and beliefs tomorrow."

"Provocations aimed at inciting people"

President Erdoğan emphasized that the memories of what happened in Europe during World War II serve as bitter examples of this, and stated that 28 years ago, in Srebrenica, it was seen that this climate of hatred could lead to genocide:

"Every unpunished crime emboldens the perpetrator. If Islamophobia is not stopped, the culprits will become even more brazen. Turkey is issuing warnings and clearly expressing its stance in the face of this danger, which is growing like a snowball. We are diligently working to keep the issue on the international agenda," Erdoğan said.

He added, "Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and most recently, New York, cannot in any way justify the vile attacks on our holy book, the Qur'an. We absolutely reject the legitimization of attacks on the sacred values of the 2 billion Muslims worldwide under the guise of freedom of speech."

Erdoğan concluded by stating, "In our view, these actions are provocations aimed at inciting people. We took the lead in the acceptance of the decision by the United Nations Human Rights Council and General Assembly that considers all acts of violence against holy books as a violation of international law. We will be determined to continue our efforts in this direction." (AS/PE)