Erdoğan: West Bank belongs to Palestinians, Turkey will stand with Palestine

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Monday that the West Bank belongs to Palestinians, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins Tuesday's election.

Ahead of a state visit to Moscow, Erdoğan said the move would be another occupation measure by Israel, and emphasized that Turkey will stand with Palestine.

Turkey will increase its ongoing cooperation with Russia, said Erdoğan.

“Visa-free travel is of course a topic that is on our agenda,” he added.

The Turkish president and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will meet today for the opening ceremony of the Turkey-Russia cross-cultural year.

This will be the third meeting of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin in Moscow since the beginning of 2019.

Erdoğan will also attend the eighth High-Level Cooperation Council meeting between the two countries. The meetings are being held annually since 2010.

Referring to the contested results of last week's local elections, Erdoğan said no one can claim they won by a margin of 13,000 to 14,000 in a city of ten million voters, in reference to Turkey's biggest city Istanbul.