Turkey’s Erdogan says Hamas aren’t terrorists
Erdogan's defence of Hamas and accusations against Israel put heavy strain on efforts to warm ties over the past year-and-a-half, after years of animosity.
(TIMES OF ISRAEL) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation.
“Hamas is not a terrorist organisation, it is a group of mujahideen defending their lands,” he said to a standing ovation at a gathering of his AK Party faction in parliament.
“Mujahideen” is an Arabic term for those engaged in jihad, or holy war.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat responded that “Israel wholeheartedly rejects” Erdogan’s words.
Haiat said Hamas is a “despicable terrorist organisation worse than ISIS”, and that “even the Turkish president’s attempt to defend the terrorist organisation and his inciting words will not change the horrors that the whole world has seen and the unequivocal fact: Hamas = ISIS.”
Erdogan has not officially condemned Hamas’s murderous rampage on October 7.
He also told the AKP forum on Wednesday he is cancelling plans to visit Israel because of its “inhumane” war.
Erdogan previously called for Israel to stop its military action.
“It is clear that security cannot be ensured by bombing hospitals, schools, mosques and churches,” Erdogan said in a statement. “I reiterate our call on the Israeli government not to expand the scope of its attacks against civilians and to immediately stop its operations that are bordering genocide.”
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking in Qatar, accused Israel of “a crime against humanity” in its campaign in Gaza.
“Targeting our Palestinian brothers, including children, patients and the elderly, even in schools, hospitals and mosques, is a crime against humanity,” he said, alongside Qatari FM Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.
Erdogan’s defence of Hamas and accusations against Israel put heavy strain on efforts to warm ties over the past year-and-a-half, after years of animosity.
Israel was a long-time regional ally of Turkey before Erdogan came to power, but ties imploded after a 2010 Israeli commando raid on the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara ship, part of a blockade-busting flotilla, that left dead 10 Turkish activists who attacked IDF soldiers aboard the ship.
Facing hardening diplomatic isolation and economic woes, Erdogan began to publicly display an openness toward rapprochement in December 2020. In August of last year, Israel and Turkey announced a full renewal of diplomatic ties.
At the same time, Turkey maintains deep ties with Hamas. Erdogan has been in close contact with the Hamas leadership since the start of the war, and has allowed the terror group to operate from an office in Istanbul for over a decade, insisting that it only hosts the group’s political wing. However, in 2020, Israel provided Turkish intelligence with evidence that members of Hamas’s military wing operate in the office.
In an interview with Turkish TV last week, Qatar-based former Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said he has “great respect for Turkey”, according to Al-Monitor.
The former leader has repeatedly met with Erdogan over the years, and in an address to members of Erdogan’s party in 2014, he said he hoped to “liberate Palestine and Jerusalem” with them.
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