Erdogan: 'Israel must not be allowed to spread smell of gunpowder and blood in our region again'

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declared that the current Israeli government "must not be allowed to spread the smell of gunpowder and blood in our region again." He made these remarks during a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Istanbul.

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must not be allowed to spread the smell of gunpowder and blood in our region again

Erdogan emphasized that any solution for the region that does not include its own countries will ultimately prove unsustainable. "Any solution that does not rely on the countries of the region will not be sustainable, and no solution can last if it is outside the will of the countries of the region and without their contribution," he stated.

During the meeting, Turkey and Pakistan unveiled a new cooperation plan encompassing energy, transport, critical minerals, information technology, and defense sectors. The two nations also set a bilateral trade target of $5 billion. Earlier, officials from both countries attended a business forum where Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar expressed Turkish firms' interest in contributing to Pakistan's projects and sharing energy sector expertise.

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With the Islamabad Agreement between Washington and Tehran, the world breathed a sigh of relief.

Separately, a report from French newspaper Le Monde indicated that Turkey is developing a space and ballistic missile launch site in Somalia. This facility, announced as a technological partnership between Somalia and Turkey in December 2025, is seen as a culmination of Turkey's long-term investment in Somalia and could potentially increase the range of Turkey's ballistic missile program, posing a threat to Israel. Construction on the base began in mid-October 2025 near Mogadishu.

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any solution that does not rely on the countries of the region will not be sustainable, and no solution can last if it is outside the will of the countries of the region and without their contribution.