Turkey has a history of boycotting the annual conference in Switzerland due to their unwavering pro-Palestine stance.
Reports emerged from Bloomberg on Monday that Turkey’s president has directed members of his government not to attend the upcoming World Economic Forum.
According to Bloomberg, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for the boycott of the annual conference in Switzerland due to his nation’s “stance on Israel’s war against Hamas.”
The latest death toll figures from Palestine’s Health Ministry have grimly estimated that since October 7, Israel’s ruthless bombardment of the Strip has killed at least 24,100 Palestinians and injured 60,834 more.
Mehmet Şimşek, Turkey’s Finance Minister, was initially set to attend the event, which began on Monday and will conclude on Friday, but was directed not to do so by Erdoğan, the report added.
At the upcoming Davos meeting, Israel is set to have a prominent presence.
According to their overview published on January 9, the World Economic Forum will feature Israeli President Isaac Herzog among the 60 heads of state and government that will have “strong representation” at the event.
The Israeli delegation will also be showing a private screening with footage showing how events unfolded on October 7, Middle East Eye reported.
In the past, Turkey’s president has boldly displayed his support for the Palestinian cause at the annual gathering of political and business leaders in the Swiss city of Davos.
During the 2009 meeting in Davos, after challenging former Israeli President Shimon Peres over his country’s history of lethal aggression in Palestine, he abandoned the event of the meeting and returned to Turkey.
According to a Guardian report, Erdoğan amplified the Palestinian plight when he said to Peres, “There have been many people killed. And I think that it is very wrong and it is not humanitarian.”
Before the 2009 World Economic Forum, a three-week Israeli air, land and sea offensive killed at least 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza.
During this time, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that Israel also deployed white phosphorus munitions.
White phosphorus is a corrosive substance that can burn through flesh and into a person’s bone upon contact. Phosphorus will continue burning the victim until it is exhausted of oxygen.
Erdoğan’s confrontation with Peres was drawn to a halt by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who stopped him from continuing to speak. In response, Erdoğan said he had no future intent to return to Davos.
In light of Israel’s renewed brutal campaign against the besieged enclave, the Turkish president has denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as having ordered “one of the biggest cruelties of the last century in Gaza.”
Netanyahu is the “butcher of Gaza,” he added during a parliamentary address.
In remarks to the press on Monday, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, said that, “We cannot allow what has been happening in Gaza to continue” and renewed calls for a humanitarian ceasefire to be immediately reinstated.
