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Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan delivered his sharpest public condemnation of Israeli policy on Friday, asserting that "Israeli expansionism has come to directly threaten global security."
Speaking at the opening of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Fidan addressed representatives from approximately 140 countries. He characterized the current geopolitical climate as one of the most severe tests the region has faced in living memory.
Fidan addressed the forum with President Erdogan present.
"Especially in the last three years, Israeli expansionism, beginning with the genocide in Gaza and then spreading to Lebanon and Syria, has come to directly threaten global security," he stated.
"If lasting peace in our region and beyond is desired, the international community must urgently say stop to this expansionism that exports instability to the entire world," Fidan added.
He said the ceasefire achieved was a "sincere wish" to see fully implemented on the ground and converted into permanent peace.
He thanked Pakistan's prime minister in particular and all those who contributed to the ceasefire effort.
Fidan framed the forum's mission in expansive terms, defining diplomacy itself as a discipline for the current moment.
"Diplomacy is the will to stop the fire before it spreads further. It is the ability to patiently repair broken ties. It is the courage to stop enmities from becoming fate. It is the art of preserving and growing the minimum common ground for a shared future. In other words, diplomacy is designing tomorrow," he said.
He said the forum had been built on the vision of bringing together actors from different continents and political traditions.
"Today, thank Allah, five years in, our forum has become a global brand to which actors from different continents and political traditions converge. Today the pulse of diplomacy beats in Antalya," Fidan said.
Fidan said the world was no longer facing crises as temporary system failures but as a structural feature of the era.
"The fundamental question in this period of intensifying uncertainty is: with what reason, what will and what kind of vision will we shape the future? We are facing simultaneous and multidimensional crises that trigger one another. The real issue is that uncertainty and crises have moved beyond being a temporary malfunction of the international system and become the dominant character of our age," he said.
He recalled Erdogan's warning from last year's forum, that the greatest threat to the international system was "a dark future dominated by lawlessness, uncertainty and unilateralism", and said the current regional crisis had "painfully confirmed how accurate and correct" that assessment was.
"Last year, the ongoing Gaza genocide and its global effects were on our forum's agenda. This year, the Iran war, also generating global impact, was added," he said.
"Humanity has once again experienced with heavy costs that there is no winner in war," Fidan noted.
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