Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took advantage of a speech on human rights on Saturday to accuse the West of "barbarism" for its stance on the war between Israel and Hamas and what he described as its tolerance of Islamophobia.

Erdoğan said before a packed hall in Istanbul, a day before the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Israel has committed atrocities and massacres that would bring shame on all humanity."

The Turkish president added: "All values related to humanity are being killed in Gaza, and in the face of this brutality, international institutions and human rights organizations are not taking any tangible steps to prevent such violations."

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, issued by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948, sets a standard for human rights and freedoms for all people.

Referring to the US veto on Friday against a United Nations resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, Erdoğan said a fairer world is possible "but not with America because the United States stands by Israel. From now on, humanity will not think that the United States supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

Turkey's human rights record under two decades of Erdoğan’s rule has faced repeated criticism for targeting government critics and political opponents, undermining judicial independence, and weakening democratic institutions.

Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention on preventing violence against women and failed to implement the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.

On Saturday, the president identified Islamophobia and xenophobia, which he said "are swallowing Western societies like poisonous ivy," as the biggest threats to human rights.

He told the cheering audience that the only value "that the West clings to is its barbarism; we have seen this example of Western barbarism in all those unfortunate events that it supported or committed."

Erdoğan cited the 2019 attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which a gunman killed 51 people, as an anti-Islam attack that "gave legitimacy" and "even encouraged" by the West.

He added: "According to their understanding, non-Westerners do not have the right to enjoy universal human rights; they overlook anti-Islam attacks and show the twisted perception and mentality of the West."

In October, Erdoğan told a large protest crowd in Istanbul that his government was preparing to declare Israel a "war criminal" because of its actions in the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli government responded by saying it would reevaluate its diplomatic relations with Turkey.