Turkish Forum

Tag: Hamas

  • Turkey: Reconciling Between Israel and Hamas

    Turkey: Reconciling Between Israel and Hamas

    Alon Ben-Meir

    Senior Fellow, NYU’s Center for Global Affairs

    While the representatives of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Quartette (the US, EU, Russia and the UN) were recently hosted in Amman, Jordan, in an effort to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan met in Ankara with Hamas’ Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, who openly remains committed to Israel’s destruction and opposes any peace negotiations with Israel. This does not suggest that Mr. Erdogan’s support of Hamas’ position is against Israeli-Palestinian peace, but this raises the question as to whether or not Mr. Erdogan is willing to play a constructive role in mitigating the Israel-Hamas discord or whether he will continue to shore up Hamas’ obstructionist position to the detriment of Israeli-Palestinian peace.

    For Turkey to play a leading and constructive regional role, especially in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, it needs first to regain its credibility with Israel. The prudent thing to do for the Turkish Prime Minister is to openly balance his tenacious demands of Israel to modify its position toward Hamas for example, by putting an end to the blockade in Gaza. Similarly, he should equally demand that Hamas’ leadership change their posture by accepting Israel’s right to exist and renouncing violent resistance as the means by which to achieve a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    Erdogan’s open-ended support of Hamas, which is mainly rooted in his Islamic affinity to the organization, as many observers suspect of being the case, places the Turkish Prime Minister in a position to persuade Hamas’ leadership to permanently abandon violence and accept a two-state solution through peaceful negotiations for its own sake. Indeed, however indispensable Hamas may be to a permanent and secure Israeli-Palestinian peace, as Mr. Erdogan clearly and correctly stated, unless Hamas accepts Israel’s reality, Hamas as an organization will eventually be marginalized even by its own followers, the majority of whom want to put an end to the debilitating conflict with Israel that has led nowhere but to more pain and suffering. Repeated polls conducted over the past year have clearly revealed a growing support for the PA while Hamas’ popularity shrinks. Hamas recognizes that it needs to change its strategy towards Israel and that Turkey can play an increasingly important role by helping Hamas’ leadership take the final leap toward peace negotiations with Israel. Such an effort on Turkey’s part is most timely because intense internal deliberations among Hamas’ leaders about the pros and cons of ending militant resistance against Israel are taking place, which also remain points of contention within the unity negotiations between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

    More than any other party, Turkey has earned the trust and confidence of Hamas by being the first to invite to Ankara Hamas’ political guru, Khalid Mashaal, more than four years ago. Even though Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US and the EU, Turkey has remained a vocal and ardent supporter of the organization ever since. In fact Ankara has done so even at the expense of undermining its relations with Israel, especially since the Mavi Marmara incident on May 31st, 2010 in which nine activists (eight Turks and one American-Turkish citizen) were killed by Israeli soldiers. It is at this particular juncture that Turkey is perfectly positioned to bring Hamas in-line with the Palestinian Authority due to the fact that: a) Hamas’ political base in Damascus is in tatters due to the upheaval in Syria and is seeking a new political base outside Gaza; b) Iran, Hamas’ main benefactor, is under tremendous international economic and political pressure because of its suspected pursuit of a nuclear weapons program; and c) Egypt’s Muslim brotherhood, Hamas’ political supporter, is marred in a continuing struggle with the military over power-sharing, but gave up violence long ago to get to this point–an object lesson for Hamas.

    Notwithstanding the victories of Islamic political parties in the elections held in Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt (and however encouraging that might be to Hamas), none of these parties have gained national popularity because of their pronounced hatred and animosity toward Israel. They have won because they have focused on domestic issues: their ailing economy, health care, education, and human rights. In fact, precisely because they did not resort to scapegoating Israel or the United States for their respective country’s ailments, a habitual practice of which the Arab youth is weary. Hamas knows its limitations and will not be carried away by the illusion of the ‘Islamic Spring.’ Israel will not be wished away and no party to the Israeli-Arab conflict appreciates that better than Hamas, especially following the 2008/2009 Israeli incursions into Gaza. This further explains why Hamas is seriously deliberating abandoning violence against Israel as a means by which to realize Palestinian statehood.

    Mr. Erdogan himself might well think that this is the age of Islamism and further enforce the general perception, in and outside of Turkey, that he favors any organization or country with strong Islamic credentials over others, regardless of the conflicting issues involved. However, Mr. Erdogan is realistic enough to understand that Turkey’s continued economic developments and future leadership role in the Middle East depends on its ability to reconcile between the conflicting parties in the region. In particular, improved relations with Israel are one of the prerequisites to achieve that objective. Should Ankara continue to support Hamas without attempting to moderate its attitude toward Israel, Ankara will not only forsake the opportunity to lead but will be labeled as an obstructionist, especially in the eyes of the Arab-Sunni state that Turkey is trying to court, at a time when the entire region is in the process of geopolitical realignment.

    Ankara can be sure that Iran will strongly and continuously encourage Hamas to hold onto his anti-Israel line under the pretext of serving the Palestinians’ cause. In fact, Iran is only looking to serve its regional ambitions and will go to great lengths to protect its national interests, especially by supporting its surrogates such as Hamas and Hezbollah in carrying out its bidding. It is time for Turkey to realize that Tehran’s and Ankara’s national interests do not coincide and that in fact, the two countries may soon be on a collision course not only over post-Bashar Assad’s Syria but over their overall regional ambitions. If Ankara considers regional stability central to its own best national interests, then Turkey must spare no efforts to wean Hamas off of Tehran. Should Turkey decide to act in this direction, it can certainly count on both the US’ and the EU’s support.

    Turkey is well positioned to persuade Hamas to renounce violence which is a pre-requisite to becoming an active partner in the peace negotiations and at the same time, is able to provide Hamas’ leadership with the political cover they need to transition from a militant to a non-violent resistance movement. Once the label of being considered a terrorist organization is removed, Turkey may then invite Khalid Mashaal to move his political headquarters from Damascus to Ankara. In so doing, Ankara will not only further distance Hamas from Iran but will help legitimize Hamas in the eyes of the US and the EU. Moreover, Ankara will be in a strong position to assert itself as a significant player in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process while beginning to mend its relations with Israel.

    Regional leadership is not a given and it cannot be built on divisions and discords. Turkey must earn the regional leadership role it seeks to play. There is no better time than now for Ankara to use its influence on Hamas to make a crucial contribution to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process while enhancing its leadership role in a region in transformation.

  • How times have changed: Hamas leader feted in Turkey

    The first visit of a Hamas leader to Turkey, in Februrary 2006, caused great controversy in the host country.

    When Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal arrived, it was during the fourth year of AK Party rule, and there were still questions about the “real intentions” of the Islamist-based ruling party in the minds of Turkey’s secular establishment.

    Following the March 1 Decree crisis with the United States, when Turkey refused to allow American forces to invade Iraq from the South of Turkey, and at a time when the Turkish government was heavily criticising both the US – over an attack in the Iraqi town of Fallujah – and Israel because of the assassination of Hamas leaders in previous years, the visit of Khaled Meshaal also ruffled feathers in international circles.

    But this time around, the visit of Ismail Haniyeh to Turkey has been comparatively quiet. The Palestinian leader in Gaza met Prime Minister Erdogan, political party leaders and with members of human rights organisations. He made speeches, and paid a sentimental and symbolic visit to the Mavi Marmara ferry. He visited Istanbul’s famous Blue Mosque, led a prayer there and shook hands with Turks who have supported the Palestinian cause perhaps more than that of any other nation in the last couple of years.

    Haniyeh said from in front of the Mavi Marmara: “The Mavi Marmara broke the siege around Gaza” and thanked activists, listening to him. But this statement is an exaggeration: the Mavi Marmara incident at most only shook the siege but could not break it definitively.

    After the Mavi Marmara attack in 31 May, 2010 when Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists during a raid on the ship, Turkish and Israeli relations sank to rock bottom. Meanwhile the siege around Gaza did not move an inch; Israel simply allowed some aid into Gaza temporarily.

    What really changed the situation in the Middle East concerning the siege was the strategic change in leadership in Arab countries, mainly Egypt. With the impact of street revolts in neighbouring Egypt, and the Muslim Brotherhood’s increasing influence in national politics, the embargo on Gaza was eased.

    Ismail Haniyeh is able to pay visits to certain regional capitals because of the Arab revolt. The same current in politics is now forcing Palestinian groups to sit together and find a new way to unite powers against Israel.

    From the Turkish point of view, this visit also related to the so-called ‘Arab Spring’. Turkey’s desire to become involved in Middle East politics as a regional “provider of order” as Foreign Minister Davutoglu conceptualises it, requires it to maintain good relations with Hamas and support the Palestinian cause. Turkey’s support for Palestinians is welcome in streets in the Arab world, because for many years people have been fed up with the silence of their own governments against Israel’s atrocities.

    And this good impression is opening the way for Turkey, which would like to have a say in the restructuring of the region.

    Bora Bayraktar, Euronews-İstanbul

    via How times have changed: Hamas leader feted in Turkey | euronews, world news.

  • Top Hamas Official Visits Turkey

    Top Hamas Official Visits Turkey

    By SEBNEM ARSU and ETHAN BRONNER

    ISTANBUL — Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister of Gaza, who is making his first official trip abroad since his Islamist movement took over the Palestinian strip in 2007, sought on Monday to strengthen ties with the Arab and Muslim world in the wake of regional uprisings that have produced a rise in Islamist political strength.

    Here in Turkey, where Mr. Haniya arrived after visiting Egypt and Sudan, he was quoted by the semi-official Anatolian Agency on Monday as saying that “the Arab spring is turning into an Islamic spring.”

    Turkey, ruled by the Islamic-based Justice and Development Party, has grown close to Hamas and has downgraded its relations with Israel. In 2010, a group of ships and boats sailed from Turkey in an effort to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, and Israeli commandos boarded the vessels to stop them. When they met with resistance, the commandos killed nine activists on board. Turkey has demanded an apology and compensation; Israel has refused.

    Mr. Haniya visited the Mavi Marmara, the largest ship of the flotilla, on Monday and said, “The blood of Mavi Marmara martyrs and that of Palestinian martyrs is joined for a hopeful future.”

    While Mr. Haniya tours the region seeking financial and political support — he is heading to Iran, a major backer, in the coming days, according to the semi-official Iranian news agency FARS — his rivals in the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority were due to meet with Israeli officials on Tuesday for the first time in 15 months.

    The meeting, organized in Amman, the Jordanian capital, by King Abdullah II of Jordan, is viewed as an effort to revive peace negotiations aimed at establishing a Palestinian state, but both Palestinian and Israeli officials were keeping expectations for the meeting low. Hamas opposes negotiations with Israel as a waste of time, and it urged the Palestinian Authority not to attend.

    By calling the meeting, King Abdullah is, in part, seeking to parry the rise of Islamism, especially that of Hamas within the Palestinian movement. Though Israeli officials want to help him in that task, it was not clear whether they would arrive in Jordan with proposals that could lure the Palestinians back into direct talks.

    Hamas has long maintained its political headquarters in Syria, where an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad has roiled the country for nearly a year. Mr. Haniya declined on Monday to comment on the situation in Syria, or to directly address numerous reports that the group is seeking another base.

    “The Hamas leadership currently lives in Damascus,” Mr. Haniya said on NTV, a private television news channel, declining to elaborate on a possible move. “Everything, however, remains open to discussion.”

    In a meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Sunday, Mr. Haniya thanked him for Ankara’s continuing support for the lifting of the Israeli embargo on Gaza, and he briefed senior Turkish officials on civilian hardships in Gaza. Mr. Haniya also praised Turkey’s acceptance of 11 Palestinian ex-prisoners who were released last year as part of the exchange that led to release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

    Omer Celik, a senior party official in Turkey, called the Gaza conflict Turkey’s “national issue” and urged Israel to recognize Hamas as a legitimate political organization; Israel, the United States and European nations regard it as a terrorist group.

    “If Israel is sincere about the peace process,” Mr. Celik said on NTV, standing next to Mr. Haniya, “it should quit declaring organizations like Hamas that support the peace process illegal, and stop building settlements.”

    Turkey backs Egyptian-led reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Fatah that began last May but are moving slowly. Israel says that if Hamas joins the Palestinian Authority, there can be no peace talks. At the moment, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority and head of Fatah, is caught between reconciling with Israel and reconciling with Hamas.

    Mr. Haniya’s tour is expected to take him to Qatar, Tunisia and Bahrain in addition to Iran.

    Sebnem Arsu reported from Istanbul and Ethan Bronner from Jerusalem.

  • Erdogan to Haniyeh: Talks must include Hamas‎

    Erdogan to Haniyeh: Talks must include Hamas‎

    erdogan haniyeh hamas
    AA

    ISTANBUL — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks on Sunday with Gaza’s Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya and voiced his support for Palestinian reconciliation efforts, media reports said.

    Haniya is in Istanbul as part of his first official regional tour since his Islamist movement seized power in the Palestinian enclave in 2007, the Anatolia news agency reported.

    Ankara has sought to mediate in efforts to reconcile Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah faction and Hamas despite Israeli ire over its contacts with the Islamist movement ruling the Gaza Strip.

    Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation deal in May after years of bitter and often deadly rivalry, but its implementation has since stalled.

    Haniya’s trip follows a visit to Turkey in November by Abbas, who angered Israel when he met a woman freed under a prisoner deal who had been sentenced to life for luring an Israeli teenager to his death through an Internet chat room.

    Erdogan’s government insists that peace cannot be achieved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if Hamas is excluded from the process.

    The Turkish premier has rejected the “terrorist” label for Hamas, defending the Islamist group as “resistance fighters who are struggling to defend their land”.

    Relations between Israel and Turkey also soured after Israeli commandos launched a raid on a Turkish boat trying to break the Gaza blockade in May 2010, killing nine Turkish nationals.

    Haniya is due to visit the vessel on Monday and meet relatives of the victims, as well as holding a press conference.

    Since 2007, the Palestinian territories have been politically divided into two separate territories, with Abbas’s Fatah largely ruling the West Bank and Hamas governing Gaza.

    (AFP)  31.12.2011

  • Turkey: Friend or Foe? | The Jewish Week

    Turkey: Friend or Foe? | The Jewish Week

    Turkey: Friend or Foe?

    Submitted by Douglas Bloomfield on Fri, 12/16/2011 – 11:12

    Turkey poses the greatest challenge to American interests in the Middle East today as it seeks to fill the power vacuum left by the fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and the expected demise of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria. Ankara is moving steadily to exploit the void in regional leadership and spreading its brand of radical Islam with the help of the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, said Dan Schueftan, director of the University of Haifa’s National Security Studies Center.

    The United States underestimates the growing radicalism in Turkish politics and society and the danger that poses, he said. It should take more seriously the threat of a non-Arab Muslim state that wants to replace the weakened and distracted pro-Western Egypt and anti-Western radical Syria.

    Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is turning Turkey away from the secular, democratic republic established by Kamal Ataturk in 1923 to an Islamist-dominated government.

    He wants to become the principle leader in the region and replace the other secular regimes with ones resembling his own.

    Many Arabs are likely to view Erdogan’s push for regional leadership with suspicion in light of the centuries-long Ottoman rule, plus the fact he is not an Arab. Even so, however, the Turkish prime minister remains a hero on the Arab street for another reason: his intense hostility toward Israel.

    At times his bitter attacks on the Jewish state seem to rival those of his good friend, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Part of this may stem from a strong personal antipathy toward Israel, but more importantly it is part of a calculated campaign to position Turkey, a democratic state governed by Islamists, as a model for a new Middle East.

    “Turkey threatens and tries to bully Israel into a position where Turkey will look good to radical Arabs who are impressed by such behavior,” said Schueftan.

    Turkey calls itself a strong supporter of Palestinian statehood and insists it wants to help broker peace with Israel, but its actions say just the opposite.

    Erdogan has virtually broken relations with Israel and aligned Turkey with the Islamist Hamas, which rejects peace with Israel and wants to replace it with an Islamist republic, while he disdains the nationalist Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority.

    Under Erdogan, the AKP has urged Western countries to “recognize Hamas as the legitimate government of the Palestinian people” and dismissed Abbas as the head of an “illegitimate government,” according to Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP).

    Israel, the United States and most Western countries have classified Hamas as a terrorist organization.

    Erdogan broke recently with Syria over its response to the uprisings there and has become a mentor to the Syrian National Council (SNC) opposition movement, providing its leaders with sanctuary, housing and security. He also has had a hand in selection of SNC members, with Islamists and anti-American figures disproportionately over-represented.

    “If Assad falls, the Muslim Brotherhood would take over, and they would be completely subservient to Turkey for strategic and political reasons,” Schueftan said.

    Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and the even more extreme Salafis did better than expected in recent parliamentary elections, and are expected to play a critical role in drafting a new Egyptian constitution.

    “An axis of Muslim brothers in Turkey, Syria, Gaza and Egypt is very dangerous,” Schueftan said.

    He warned of the possibility that the empowered Brotherhood allies in those states would link with their brethren and radical Palestinians in Jordan to undermine King Abdullah and change the nature of his pro-Western regime.

    “If Jordan crumbles as a buffer state the whole Middle East will change radically,” he said.

    The Turkish army has been the guardian of secularism and democracy, and it has kept the government western oriented, but Erdogan is changing that by replacing the country’s top military commanders, many with close relations with Washington and Jerusalem, with his loyalists, neutralizing the military as a significant domestic political player. Erdogan also replaced Turkey’s pro-Western intelligence chief with someone very close to the Iranians.

    Americans fail to realize the depth of radical feelings in this Turkish government toward the West, said Schueftan. The danger Turkey represents to American interests and its allies is that it appeals to the most radical sentiments in the region. That is reflected in its approach to Hamas and Israel’s attempts to block missiles from entering Gaza.

    Turkey’s increasingly anti-Western stance raises questions of the reliability of its continued political and military cooperation with NATO and the West.

    Schueftan said the United States is deluding itself if it thinks Turkey is the right combination of moderation and Islam it would like to see throughout the Muslim world.

    “If you are willing to work with Hamas and your ally in the region is a terror organization, and your enemy is Israel, it says a lot about who you are,” Schueftan said. “America should ask itself, ‘When someone is the very bitter enemy of your good friend, is that the basis for a strategic alliance?’” Washington must prepare for Turkey becoming increasingly unfriendly and ultimately hostile to the United States and not entertain any expectations that it can look to Ankara for help in maintaining regional stability, Schueftan said.

    via Turkey: Friend or Foe? | The Jewish Week.

  • TURKEY TO GIVE HAMAS A $300 MILLION BAILOUT

    TURKEY TO GIVE HAMAS A $300 MILLION BAILOUT

    For one of our allies to directly fund state-supported terrorism, we in effect support terrorism if we do nothing to stop and condemn it.

    After 9/11, the Bush administration went to great lengths to seize the assets and funds of al Qaeda. So how is Turkey funding Hamas any different? Turkey’s Prime Minister is directly funding the murdering of Jews in Israel.

    Now that this information is public knowledge, don’t put it passed the Israelis to do everything they can to stop Turkey from funding Hamas.

    (IMEMC) – Turkish sources reported that Prime Minister of Turkey, Receb Tayyip Erdogan, sent a confidential letter to Ismail Haniyya, Prime Minister of the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip, inviting him to visit Turkey, and informing him that he has decided to grant Haniyya’s government $300 Million.

    The urgent aid to the Authority in Gaza comes due to the serious financial crisis the Hamas-led government is facing.

    Hamas sources said that Erdogan positively responded to a statement by Hamas Political Bureau Chief, Khaled Mashal, who called for boosting the relations between Hamas and Turkey.

    Erdogan instructed the Ministry of Finance to allocate $300 million to be sent to Hamas’ government in Gaza.

    On his part, Mashal stated that financial support to Hamas witnessed a sharp decrease recently, adding that the Turkish donation will help cover some of the budget for the coming year as the government’s balance for this year is estimated by $540 Million.

    Quote via: IMEMC.

    via TURKEY TO GIVE HAMAS A $300 MILLION BAILOUT. « GILL REPORT – The official website of the Steve Gill Show.