ISLAMABAD: The leaders of Pakistan, Turkiye and Azerbaijan met on Wednesday in Lachin and called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, saying Israel’s war on the besieged enclave was the clearest example of the “crisis of legitimacy” of the international system.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev addressed a trilateral summit in Lachin and also attended a ceremony to mark Azerbaijan’s Independence Day.
“The martyrdom of innocent Palestinians must stop immediately and they must be given the right to self-determination as per the two-state solution,” Sharif said while addressing the Independence Day event.
“Freedom is a basic right and a just cause to support,” the PM said, reiterating his call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Addressing the trilateral summit earlier in the day, Erdogan said the world was witnessing the international system gradually drifting into a “crisis of legitimacy.”
“The clearest example of the crisis of the international system is Israel’s relentless cruelty and expansionist policies in Palestine,” the Turkish leader said, adding that countries like Turkiye and Pakistan would continue defending the rights of the people of Gaza.
“We call on the entire world from here [trilateral summit] to increase pressure on the Israeli administration for establishing a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and for taking uninterrupted emergency humanitarian aid into Gaza,” Erdogan said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (right), Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev (center), and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pose for a picture at the Independence Day of Azerbaijan in Lachin on May 28, 2025. (Government of Pakistan)
Israel launched its latest air and ground war in Gaza after a cross-border attack by the Hamas group on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people by Israeli tallies, with 251 hostages abducted into Gaza. The war has killed more than 53,900 Palestinians since, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip.
The entire 2.1 million population of Gaza is facing prolonged food shortages, with nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death, according to the World Health Organization.
Food security groups say more than 93% of children in Gaza, about 930,000, are at risk of famine. Using satellite data, the United Nations estimated in February that 69% of the structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.
