"We would have another fleet of humanitarian aid on its way if the same thing was done to the jews by the muslims. Such is our philosophy of life. "
Dear members of the press,
We are here with you today and we will again be with the oppressed people there and in other part of the world tomorrow.
I welcome you all and greet you with love and respect.
First of all, I thank my Lord to be alive here today together with you.
Dearest friends,
I would like to start with a confession. While we were under fire on the ship from all sides, the bravery and the resilience of our journalist friends most impressed me.
You are people whose friendship one cannot afford to forget.
I sincerely and genuinely thank you all, all our media and the world's media.
Dear friends,
Our nation has once again showed its greatness in the face of the recent incidents by reacting in the best way possible and with resilience.
For this reason,
we sincerely thank,
our Nation,
our State with all its institutions,
our President,
our Parliament that acted in unity and passed a decision,
our Government, our Prime Minister, our Ministers,
the office of our Commander in Chief,
all our political parties both in government and in opposition,
all the members of our parliament,
all nongovernmental organizations,
the business world that has been aware of the greatness of Turkey before anyone else,
and of course, our volunteer sister and brothers who came from all over the world and risked their lives.
Dear members of the press,
Our group was made up of all sorts of people, including leftists, rightists, liberals, conservatives, atheists, muslims, christians, jews, buddhists...Ours was a civil and pacifist initiative created by conscientious, civilian, unarmed people who carried with them nothing but humanitarian aid.
And we set sail to prove to the people of Gaza, who have been under a siege for years which is not unlike an imprisonment in a castle, that human kindness has not yet died.
Keeping our faith in the spirit of civil power, our Freedom Flotilla did not take any orders or any kind of support from any government during its organization. Our power came solely from the conscience of humanity and the courage of our rightfulness. We wanted to be a source of invigoration for the people of Gaza on whom many states turn a blind eye.
We did not want to be complicit in the oppression against the people of Gaza by keeping silent, not raising our voices and not doing anything.
We all knew well that we were going to be confronted with the government of Israel.
We were aware that this empire of lies and massacres was very capable of slandering even the most innocent efforts and obfuscating the facts.
As a matter of fact, we were guessing that they could stop us from our course with their naval ships and try to prevent us from getting to our destination in all sorts of ways. However, we did not think for a moment the possibility of the fact that they could carry out a massacre, initiate a terror attack on innocent civilians, turn into such vile, brutal criminals and attack the conscience of humanity.
Brothers and sisters,
We were sailing on international waters.
International waters is not anybody's personal property. The Israeli terrorists violated maritime laws that were formed throughout the course of thousand s of years, acted not with the solemnity and responsibility of a state but with the brutality of a band of bandits or a terrorist organization and opened cross fire on us before even descending on our ship.
Journalists from all over the world are witnesses to this.
You are witnesses to this.
And now look what these murderers are saying:
They are accusing us asking why we threw water bottles and plates at them and why we had clubs.
Dear members of the press,
What would you do when confronted with criminals or terrorists that first opened fire on your house and then violated your property with the most advanced firearms?
Ours was self-defense. And self defense is legitimate. It has always been legitimate in all systems of law and throughout history.
I am a lawyer. I should know this better than anyone.
However, we did not defend ourselves with firearms against these terrorists that attacked us with firearms, we did not have such means anyway. Now some people are asking, “Why did you go there?”
We did, because we are humans.
We went out there because we are humans. The conscience of humanity has not yet died, this we wanted to prove to humanity itself. For this, we went out there.
We went and we will go again.
We would have another fleet of humanitarian aid on its way if the same thing was done to the jews by the muslims. Such is our philosophy of life.
Wherever there was an oppressed, disadvantaged person, a child crying in hunger or an orphan, we were there. Just a few months ago, we were in Haiti.
As you all know, a few weeks ago, two of our brothers were martyred when they went to Afghanistan to open an orphanage. We went to Bosnia when the Serbs massacred the Bosnian people. When the hurricane hit the USA, we went to help them. We went to all parts of Africa. We went to Iraq several times. Earthquakes happened in Greece and in Italy and we went to these countries.
We went to all those places because we were human, because this is the meaning of life to us.
You may not get along with a state, you may not approve the way a country is governed. These are legitimate things. Yet, you cannot punish the whole of their people or a whole city.
You cannot deprive a whole city of food, water, medicine and shelter.
This is not legitimate.
Brothers and sisters,
We will keep telling this massacre carried out on innocent, unarmed civilians to everyone for as long as we live.
There will be noone left that does not damn this injustice, brutality and lawlessness.
Those who carried out a massacre on us yesterday with firearms have started yet another attack now.
The government of Israel that has made a career out of lying is slandering our organization.
We know perfectly well that their greatest skill is in lying.
Thank God that the public opinion does not seem to believe even one bit in what this empire of lies says.
The Israeli government is accusing us of supporting terror.
This is a despicable lie.
Israel kills innocent civilians and we are martyred while we are trying to make them live.
Israel kills babies and we are martyred while we are trying to save them.
Israel leaves people without food and we are martyred while are trying to save them from hunger.
Israel leaves people without medicine and we are martyred while we are trying to heal them.
I ask to all people with reason, mercy and conscience: Who is the terrorist?
Brothers and sisters,
If we had been supporters of terror, we would have been supporters of Israel for Israel is the greatest terrorist.
The whole world saw this yet again on the 31st of May, 2010.
Distinguished members of the press,
From now on, we are more hopeful of a better future for all the innocent, oppressed and disadvantaged people all over the world.
And from now on, no oppressors, no murderers, no villains, no outlaws, no bandits, no terrorists and no dictators will be able to get away with what they do.
None of us will allow this.
Just as the Nazis were tried and convicted for what they did to the Jews,
just as the Serbian officials who were responsible for the massacres of Bosnian people were tried and convicted,
the Zionist officials of Israel too will one day be tried and convicted before the eyes of all humanity for what they did. All humanity will follow this and bring this to an end.
Before I end my words, I would like to thank you again for your attention and participation.
