The Turkish leader, who has vastly expanded his country’s role in the Middle East and presided over an economy that has tripled in size, was introduced at the event by Fareed Zakaria, the CNN foreign affairs show host, as the most important political figure in Turkey’s history since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder the Turkish republic.

Mr. Erdogan devoted much of his speech to what he described as Turkey’s unique position as the epicenter in a legacy of Middle East conflicts that can be traced back to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, and therefore is best suited to help solve them. “Turkey best knows the geography it’s in,” he said. “We share a common history with every people in the region.”

He reiterated his deep anger at what he called a “systematic attack on Turkey’s international reputation” by news media organizations, including The New York Times, that in his view had sought to falsely imply that Mr. Erdogan and his aides tolerated the presence of Islamic State fighters in Turkey and even countenanced oil smuggling with the group, which helps finance itself via contraband sales from seized Syrian petroleum fields. Mr. Erdogan called such reporting “so unfounded, so slanderous.”

The Turkish leader also reminded that Turkey was hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled the conflict in Syria, had shouldered that burden without much international help and was facing a new influx of Kurdish villagers in northern Syria, who have fled an onslaught by Islamic State fighters in recent days.

Mr. Erdogan also sought to rebut accusations that he has engaged in anti-Semitism because of his severe criticism of Israel over the treatment of the Palestinians. He drew a distinction between the Israeli people and the Israeli government.

“Our criticism is solely directed at the Israeli government’s policies,” he said.

Referring to the 50-day Gaza Strip war this summer, in which more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military attacks to stop rocket fire and tunnel digging into Israel by Palestinian militants, Mr. Erdogan said, “It isn’t anti-Semitism to criticize the massacre of children and babies in their homes.”

He reminded his audience that Turkey’s sizable Jewish population was a legacy of the Ottoman Empire’s religious tolerance, and that he had denounced anti-Semitism as a crime.

“When Jews were expelled from Spain, they sought refuge in the Ottoman territory,” he said. “In the same way, our country embraced Jews fleeing Hitler’s persecution.”