Erdogan condemns Gaza 'ecocide' at Cop31 climate summit in Turkey

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Erdogan condemns Gaza 'ecocide' at Cop31 climate summit in Turkey Submitted by Ragip Soylu on Wed, 11/11/2026 - 12:30 Turkish president describes climate change as 'one of the…

Gaza has suffered an ecocide as well as a genocide, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday during his opening address at the Cop31 climate conference, which is being held in Antalya.

“As I also emphasised in my address to the UN General Assembly, Gaza has suffered not only genocide but also ecocide,” Erdogan said of the Palestinian enclave, which has been subject to an Israeli onslaught since October 2023.

“Centuries-old olive trees have been cut down, the soil and water have been contaminated, and cities have been reduced to enormous piles of rubble.”

Erdogan said heavy rainfall and flooding had compounded the humanitarian suffering in Gaza, leaving tens of thousands of tents and shelters submerged.

“Hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters in Gaza, with no roof under which to take shelter, especially innocent children trembling with cold, are struggling to survive amid the floodwaters in these winter conditions, often without their mothers or fathers,” he said.

The Turkish president called for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza immediately and for an end to the policy of isolation.

Turning to the broader climate crisis, Erdogan described climate change as “one of the deepest existential crises” in humanity’s history.

“As humanity, our home has only one roof, and that is the sky. As humanity, our home has only one garden, and that is the Earth," he said.

“I want to say this very clearly: we have no other sky, no other Earth, no other seas, oceans or forests.

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