Thousands of people gathered in Kürecik, a neighborhood in the eastern Turkish province of Malatya, on Sunday to demand the closure of a NATO radar base that they claim provides intelligence to Israel, the occupying regime in Palestine.

The protest was organized by the Malatya Jerusalem Brotherhood Platform, a coalition of civil society organizations that support the Palestinian cause. The protesters chanted slogans such as "Down with Israel, down with America" and "Jerusalem is ours, it will remain ours".

The speakers at the rally expressed their solidarity with the Islamic resistance movement HAMAS, which has been fighting against the Israeli occupation for decades. They praised HAMAS as a "blessed organization" that strives for freedom and justice, and rejected the accusations of terrorism leveled against it by israel and its allies.

Mesut Turan, the regional president of the Anatolian Youth Association (AGD), one of the organizers of the rally, said: "HAMAS does not engage in any act of terrorism, it only defends its land. It is a social movement based on service. It carries out its legitimate defense against Israel, the terrorist organization that usurped its lands by force."

Turan also called on the Muslim state administrations to fear Allah and not the worldly powers, and to stand up for the oppressed people of Palestine.

"Defending Türkiye is to support the Bosnian struggle in the 90s, defending Türkiye is to shoulder the struggle of the Chechens in the Caucasus, defending Türkiye is to tear up the work that Zionist organizations want to create in Cyprus and to liberate Cyprus, defending Türkiye is to support our brothers in Palestine, to fight together with our brothers in Palestine. It is to shed blood on that path if necessary. May your jihad be blessed,” he said.

The protesters also carried banners and flags with the symbols of HAMAS and the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, its military wing.

The Kürecik NATO Radar Base, which was established in 2012, is part of the US-led missile defense system in Europe.

The Turkish government has claimed that the base is for defensive purposes and does not pose a threat to any country, but the protesters argued that the base serves the interests of Israel and harms the security of Türkiye and the region. (ILKHA)