Peace Committee of Turkey has launched a call for the government of Turkey to take action for full membership of Palestine to the United Nations. Important intellectuals have undersigned this call.

IT IS TIME TO TAKE ACTION FOR FULL MEMBERSHIP OF PALESTINE TO THE UNITED NATIONS

As intellectuals from Turkey, we declare that we repudiate US President Donald Trump’s unilateral proclamation that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. We believe that this an extremely dangerous fait accompli, which is against international law and which denies relevant UN Resolutions and agreements.

The fact that the USA is the strongest imperialist state in the world, does not give her the right and legitimacy to take unilateral steps. Moreover, it was certain that this unlawful step would serve as a provocation. We denounce this provocation and the fact that the USA and Israel are trying to overcome their isolation at the United Nations by exerting brute force.

A just solution in today’s world can achieved, as its fundamentals has been expressed in international documents, by the establishment of an independent Palestinian State within the borders of June 4th 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital; the return of Palestinian refugees on the basis of UN Resolution 194; stopping all Israeli settlement activities in the Palestinian territories and evacuation of these settlements; releasing all Palestinian political prisoners from Israeli prisons; and demolishing the wall, which has divided Palestine and turned it into a prison.

Nevertheless, global and regional powers, who claim that they stand by the people of Palestine, prefer to play unfair. Initiatives of “solidarity with Palestine”, which do not propose to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state with all its rights and within the abovementioned framework, are far from being sincere. Defining the problem only as “whose capital is Jerusalem” is far from being adequate and actually demagogic.

Palestine is still not a full member of the United Nations; it is a non-member observer state. This status is helping Israel to conceal and obscure the fact of its occupation of Palestine. All peace talks, until today, have been made between two sides, one of which is under the occupation of the other. It is not possible to make progress under such conditions.

As friends of the people of Palestine, we call on the government of the Republic of Turkey to take action for full membership of the state of Palestine to the United Nations. We call on the peace-loving forces all around the world, to similarly put pressure on their governments for Palestine’s full membership to the UN.

Adnan Serdaroğlu (President, Union of United Metal Workers)
Ahmet Abakay (journalist, writer)
Ahmet Say (writer)
Ali Balkız (writer, ex-president of Alawite-Bektashi Federation)
Ali Rıza Aydın (President, Association for Leftist Stance in Law)
Aylin Nazlıaka (Member of Parliament - independent)
Barış Pehlivan (journalist, writer)
Barış Terkoğlu (journalist, writer)
Cengiz Arın (professor emeritus)
Enver Aysever (journalist, writer)
Korkut Boratav (economist, writer)
Levent Üzümcü (actor)
Musa Çam (Member of Parliament from Izmir, ex-General Secretary of Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions)
Mustafa Demir (President, Association of Teachers)
Mustafa Karadağ (lawyer, ex-President of Union of Judges)
Mustafa Kemal Erdemol (journalist, writer)
Mustafa Türkeş (academic, expert on international relations)
Neval Oğan Balkız (lawyer, academic)
Nihat Behram (poet, writer)
Oğuz Oyan (writer, ex-member of parliament)
Oktar Türel (professor emeritus, writer)
Orhan Aydın (actor)
Orhan Gökdemir (journalist, writer)
Osman Çutsay (journalist, writer)
Rıfat Okçabol (professor emeritus)
Sedat Vural (lawyer)
Sinan Sönmez (economist, writer)
Şefik Asan (teacher, writer, ex-board member of Peace Association of Turkey)
Yusuf Ziya Bahadınlı (writer, ex-member of parliament)
Zuhal Okuyan (doctor of medicine, president of the banned Peace Association of Turkey)