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Türkiye has received an invitation to U.S. President Donald Trump's Gaza summit scheduled for Feb. 19, though President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not yet decided whether to attend, Turkish Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Fuat Oktay said on Wednesday.
"There is already a meeting next week on the 19th. Türkiye has also received an invitation in this regard," Oktay told Turkish journalists in Washington on Wednesday.
"Whether our president will attend has not yet been clarified. Evaluations are currently being made. An announcement on this will be made by our president," he added.
Despite Oktay's announcement, President Erdogan stated that Ankara has not yet received an invitation regarding Türkiye's participation in the Gaza Peace Board.
Following his party's parliamentary group meeting in the Turkish Parliament, when asked whether Türkiye would participate in the Gaza Peace Board, Erdogan responded, "We haven't received an invitation yet."
The summit, organized through Trump's "Board of Peace" initiative for Gaza, will be held at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) and will mark the body's first meeting, along with a reconstruction fundraising effort.
Oktay is leading a Turkish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee delegation to Washington to strengthen ties at the congressional level, building on positive momentum at the executive branch level.
"We want to take this positive agenda to the Congress dimension," Oktay said.
"We are here with the desire to create a counterpart in Congress to the positive agenda being conducted at the government and head of state levels," he added.
The delegation will meet with the chairmen of both the Senate and House of Representatives foreign affairs committees, as well as other members of Congress, through Friday.
"We want a more structural relationship between parliaments, not just a relationship where they receive information from each other only through lobbies," Oktay noted.
Oktay said U.S. sanctions on Türkiye would be a key topic in congressional discussions.
"Congress has an extremely large role here," he said.
"The removal of these sanctions as soon as possible will have extremely positive effects on both regional peace and Türkiye-U.S. relations—not just in terms of relations, but also economically and in other areas, whether in the defense industry or other dimensions, in terms of developing much more comprehensive cooperation," Oktay added.
He noted that lifting sanctions would benefit bilateral relations "from every angle."
Oktay emphasized Türkiye's principled approach to foreign policy, noting that Ankara bases its relations on respect for countries' territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.
"When you look at our relations with Russia, our principled relations and approach with Hamas on the other side, you actually see this principled foundation," Oktay said.
"You can clearly see the dimension of humanitarian foreign policy regarding ensuring stability and peace in this region. When we look at the Iran dimension today or developments in Iraq, we again see within the same framework how acting together with the U.S. serves Türkiye's interests," he added.
Oktay said the delegation's agenda also includes discussions on Türkiye's role in European security architecture amid evolving transatlantic relations.
"The European security architecture dimension is also seriously on the agenda due to relationships experienced in the transatlantic dimension. Türkiye has many things to do there as well," he noted.
The delegation, which includes lawmakers Sena Nur Celik Kanat, Ziya Altunyaldiz, Oguz Kaan Salici and Kamil Aydin, also met with Turkish community representatives and citizens at Türkiye's Washington Embassy, hosted by Ambassador Sedat Onal.
The delegation is expected to complete its U.S. contacts and return to Türkiye on Feb. 14.
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