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Türkiye wants an immediate Sudan ceasefire and peace-focused approaches instead of a military solution, Deputy Foreign Minister Ambassador Musa Kulaklikaya said in Geneva, also warning that Gaza aid deliveries remain far below expectations.
Some Turkish humanitarian aid for Gaza is being held in Egypt only because it carries markings showing it came from Türkiye, Kulaklikaya told state-run Anadolu Agency (AA).
Kulaklikaya spoke in the Swiss city of Geneva, where he attended the Sixth Consultative Meeting on Strengthening the Coordination of Peace Initiatives and Efforts in Sudan.
"Our hope is, first of all, that a ceasefire be achieved immediately and, in order to achieve lasting and sustainable peace, that all parties keep dialogue mechanisms alive and that peace-oriented approaches be adopted, not a military solution approach," he said.
Kulaklikaya said the Sudan crisis has long occupied the international agenda. He said it began as a fight among actors inside Sudan and turned into a crisis affecting citizens in humanitarian and security terms, while also affecting countries in the region.
He said the failure to resolve the problem created additional issues that made it more complex.
"Some armed interventions from border countries in particular, and interventions by some actors supporting the warring parties, have made the crisis even more complicated," Kulaklikaya said.
"The humanitarian aid needs that emerge in such a conflict environment, and the difficulties in meeting these needs, have deepened the crisis even further," he added.
Kulaklikaya said many initiatives have been developed to solve the problem, stressing regional countries and international organizations have launched different initiatives.
He said he previously represented Türkiye at a meeting in Cairo, Egypt.
"What is desired, of course, is first and foremost a ceasefire, but the warring parties do not warm to a ceasefire the moment they appear to have gained relative superiority. There is such a reality," he said.
"To achieve comprehensive peace, efforts are being made to establish a dialogue mechanism conducted with the dynamics inside Sudan," the Turkish official added.
He said these initiatives try to bring the parties in Sudan together at certain intervals. Türkiye has followed developments closely from the start, he said, adding its historical, cultural and economic multifaceted ties and cooperation with Sudan made this a necessity.
Kulaklikaya stressed Türkiye shows special care for Sudan. He said Türkiye tries to make constructive contributions to these initiatives and sometimes mediates between the parties.
"Beyond all this, on the other hand, regarding the humanitarian aid needed inside the country, through both the aid we provide individually as Türkiye and the aid we provide in cooperation with other countries, we continue to stand by Sudan and our Sudanese brothers," he said.
Kulaklikaya said such meetings allow initiatives to stay informed of one another and to share the results of their efforts. He said they create room for exchanging ideas and help speed up a possible solution.
“The fact that no one from the Sudanese side has been invited to various international conferences to date is a major shortcoming for us. I also raised this in my speech. We are talking about Sudan, and there is no one representing Sudan,” he said.
“That is, since these meetings are a coordination mechanism of the parties holding initiatives, they develop the argument that the warring parties are not invited because of the potential to lead to additional and unnecessary debates,” Kulaklikaya continued.
“This may perhaps be an acceptable argument, but in our view there is a necessity to create environments where they, too, will be engaged as counterparts in some way,” he said.
The Turkish official said some actors attending the meeting regard the Sudanese army and the militia forces as two equal warring parties and recognize neither as Sudan’s legitimate representative.
Türkiye, he said, accepts the army as the country’s legitimate representative, even if it is a military regime.
Kulaklikaya said the militias in particular carried out acts amounting to genocide.
He said they have recently seen the destructive effects of some defense industry products used in Sudan, even in the humanitarian aid field.
"Perhaps these elements, which both sides may be using, also require them to be more careful about not using them against civilians. This was one of the issues raised at today’s meeting. As Türkiye, we also support this," he said.
"Our hope is, first of all, that a ceasefire be achieved immediately and, in order to achieve lasting and sustainable peace, that all parties keep dialogue mechanisms alive and that peace-oriented approaches be adopted, not a military solution approach. We are making efforts for this. This is our main focus both in our own efforts and in the cooperation we carry out with other initiatives," the Turkish official added.
The Sudan ceasefire call comes as the country remains locked in a bloody conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023. The fighting has killed tens of thousands, displaced about 13 million people and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to U.N. reports.
Kulaklikaya said the Palestinian issue, in the case of Gaza, took a different direction with Israel’s attacks on Gaza after October 2023.
"The Palestinian issue has recently not remained limited to the genocide in Gaza; we are also witnessing Israel’s increasing violations in the occupied West Bank," he said.
He said human rights violations happen every day. Israelis who seize Palestinians’ land and homes attack people’s lands with the support of security forces, block farmers harvesting olives and steal their crops, he said.
The Turkish official said the peace plan announced at the Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Summit served some positive developments, such as stopping the intense genocide and allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza.
He noted an agreement was also reached in the negotiations held with Hamas.
"Hamas, in the talks held with mediators including Türkiye, fulfilled all the responsibility falling upon it for the realization of more or less all the goals envisioned regarding the peace plan. The most important stage of this was the acceptance of disarmament," he said.
"Despite Hamas declaring, saying it accepted all the conditions, Israel, the occupying power, announced that it did not recognize this agreement. It continues the violations it commits in a state of complete paranoia," Kulaklikaya said.
"That is, not a day goes by without innocent people being killed, not a day goes by without children and women being killed. While this massacre has relatively decreased on the one hand, killings targeting certain people in particular continue," he added.
Kulaklikaya stressed that expectations for the regular entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza under the agreement have not been met.
He said 600-700 humanitarian aid trucks were expected to enter daily on average, but a maximum of about 100-150 trucks can enter each day. Most of these, about 60 percent, carry commercial goods, he said.
Kulaklikaya said Israel deliberately does not allow the entry of construction materials needed to restore civilian services such as schools, hospitals and bakeries so people can sustain their lives.
He said the suffering of Gazans continues to grow as a new winter begins.
Kulaklikaya said shelter is a major problem.
"Until now, people have been trying to get by with the tents they have, but the tents’ resistance to winter conditions is extremely low," he said.
"Although many countries in the world, including Türkiye, want to take steps on this issue, for example, although we alone as Türkiye have declared that we are ready to dispatch 80,000 containers that can be used as homes, unfortunately, we are unable to make any progress on this issue," Kulaklikaya said.
"Some of our humanitarian aid materials are being held at El-Arish Port, in Rafah, in Egypt. Just because they carry markings indicating they came from Türkiye," he added.
Kulaklikaya said Israel wants to force Palestinians to migrate to achieve its goals there, adding this applies to the West Bank as well as Gaza.
He said Israel has an approach that ignores all gains on the Palestinian issue and disregards the two-state solution.
Israeli officials, with an eye on elections scheduled for Oct. 27 in Israel, have taken no positive steps on Palestine in order to send a message to their domestic public and have made statements targeting neighboring countries, Kulaklikaya noted.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since October 2023 has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and injured more than 175,000 others, while causing widespread destruction affecting about 90 percent of civilian infrastructure.
Israeli violations of the ceasefire have killed 1,534 Palestinians and injured 5,486 others, according to the latest figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry.
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