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Türkiye announced Tuesday that it welcomes and supports a coordinated decision by 12 countries, led by the United Kingdom, France and Canada, to restrict trade and business dealings with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, calling on other nations to follow suit.
In a statement, Türkiye's Foreign Ministry said Israel's efforts to undermine the two-state solution are "intensifying by the day." The ministry characterized the settlements as having evolved into a systematic policy of occupation that threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state.
The ministry went further in describing violence linked to the settlements, stating that "settler terrorism has reached the level of ethnic cleansing."
According to the ministry, confronting Israel's occupation activities has become a necessary condition for reaching a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for building what it called a just and lasting peace in the region. The statement urged other governments to act.
"We expect all responsible members of the international community to adopt similar decisions," the ministry said.
Türkiye reiterated its position that it will continue working toward the creation of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with territorial integrity, based on the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and Israeli settlements there are widely considered illegal under international law, a position reflected in past United Nations resolutions.
The Turkish statement came after the UK, France, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden announced earlier Tuesday that they were taking steps to restrict trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Türkiye's ministry framed its own statement as a direct response to that announcement.
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