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Malek Helali
Doha
SINCE the beginning of the blockade, Turkey has announced its position declaring that the demands of the blockading countries were unjust, and that we were not convinced by them, according to HE Fikret Ozer, Ambassador of Turkey to Qatar.
In a recent interview with Qatar Tribune, the Ambassador said that Turkey supported Qatar from the very beginning of the blockade.
He added:"We sent the necessary products that Qatar needed as soon as possible and starting from the second day, seven cargo planes flew daily to Qatar adding up to a total of around 700 planes that transferred a variety of products until Qatar overcame the effect of the siege."
Turkey did not save an effort to help Qatar in overcoming the effects of the blockade and has also supported Qatar politically on international and regional platforms and assemblies, according to the Ambassador."This is a brotherly duty rooted in our values and principles," he added.
"All of the GCC countries are brotherly to Turkey and we do not accept that any of them be subjected to wrongfulness and injustice. We saw that Qatar will be affected negatively and we do not accept that, so we stood with Qatar. We would have had a similar reaction if any other country was put in that position and those excuses and justifications they provided did not convince us," the Ambassador explained.
Furthermore, HE Ozer said:"We hope that the crisis would be resolved as it does not benefit any of the parties involved and that is why we support Kuwait's mediation and hope that it would bring positive results. Turkey has played its role as a Muslim country that is the president of the Islamic summit and a member of the Muslim Cooperation Council. Until now, we have not reached a resolution. There is going to be a meeting next September in the United States and we hope that the meaningless crisis will be resolved."
Unfortunately, the blockade affected many civilians and families and had detrimental inhumane consequences leading to the separation of families across the borders of the GCC countries including the separation of mothers from their children, according to HE Ozer.
Turkey has been supportive of Qatar in light of the blockade and has provided for the deficiency in Qatar's necessary demands since the beginning of the siege, the Ambassador further said, adding that the blockading countries were hoping to create a big shortage of essential products in Qatar but did not achieve their goal.
"The blockading countries closed their borders and prevented the export of goods to Qatar that used to get 27% of its demands of food products from these blockade countries," the Ambassador explained. He added:"As a result of the cooperation between the Turkish and the Qatari ministries of economy, an urgent operation chamber was established in Qatar and Turkey shortly after the air, land, and sea blockade was imposed on Qatar."
The Ambassador noted that Qatar delivered a list of necessary food products classified in order of priority to the Turkish authorities and those demands were fulfilled within 48 hours including milk, yogurt, eggs, chicken, fruits and delivered to the shelves.
"Within the first three days of the blockade, Qatar's population did not feel the effects of the blockade on their daily lives. This was later followed by the exportation of construction materials and other products from Turkey to Qatar," he explained.
Furthermore, the Ambassador said that if the various reactions of different countries to the blockade were compared, it is evident that Qatar tried to preserve moderation and sobriety towards the blockade countries and kept its honour."We also saw that HE the Prime Minister commanded citizens and residents not to respond to the attacks directed to them in order not to degrade themselves and preserve their dignity," he added.
In terms of foreign policy, the Qatari diplomacy toured the world presenting Qatar's case and got a wide positive reaction which is considered a success for Qatar, according to HE Ozer."Despite the pressure that blockading countries put on many countries to cut their relations with Qatar, they were unsuccessful. Ultimately, these countries responded that their honour cannot be bought nor sold," the Ambassador added.
