Wednesday, January 29, in his presidential palace with a thousand rooms, on a hill in Ankara, the capital, the president Islamo-nationalist Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan receives a delegation of representatives of Hamas. Two key characters in Turkish power, the head of the secret service, Ibrahim Kalin, and his predecessor and current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan, also attend the meeting. During this first visit to Turkey since the recent cease-fire agreement between the Palestinian Islamist organization and Israel, the Turkish president again praised the “resistance” of those which he regularly describes as “liberators” or even of “mujahideen” (fighters for faith).
With its Qatari ally and its Iranian neighbor, Turkey is one of the few countries to openly support the terrorist group. Ismaïl Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, killed in Tehran last July, had been filmed on October 7, 2023, reacting to the attack of his group against the military and Israeli civilians from a luxury hotel in Turkey, where he lived a large part of the time. The massacres of October 7, however, took Turkey in short, when it was engaged in a process of rapprochement with Israel.
Worried about the repercussions, Ankara discreetly prayed to the organization’s hierarchy to leave the territory. Since then, Hamas leaders have been content to visit, only certain intermediate executives continuing to live in the country. Without benefiting from official offices, the movement is nevertheless physically present in the country behind associative work or reflection centers With convoluted names, such as the “Asia-Africa Cooperation Center”, sometimes installed in the same buildings as the local AKP seats, the ruling party, which allows them to also benefit from police protection. The members of Hamas installed or passing through Turkey have a priori nothing to fear from Israeli secret services which refrain from hitting in the country.
Likewise, Turkey, if it regularly organizes vast arrest campaigns targeting Arab refugees or Turkish citizens presented as “Mossad spies”, does not allow Islamist organizations or foreign services, especially Iranian, from Assocate Israeli interests or citizens in the country. On the other hand, waves of American sanctions – the last of them was linked at the end of November – regularly hit the economic interests of Hamas in Turkey, which notably invested in Stambouliote real estate, as well as the executives residing there.
With Donald Trump, Erdogan walks on eggs
The authorities do not, however, want to appear neutral. On January 1, a demonstration of support in Hamas organized by Bilal Erdogan, the son of the Turkish leader, brought together tens of thousands of people in the center of Istanbul. “Yesterday Holy Sophie [NDLR : reconvertie en mosquée en 2020]today the omeyyad mosque [de Damas, dans laquelle Erdogan promettait d’aller prier lors de la chute d’Assad]tomorrow al-aqsa [la grande mosquée de Jérusalem]”, Proclaimed the very warrior slogan of the rally. However, if the speech of Recep Tayyip Erdogan sometimes takes martial intonations, implying that the Turkish army could be sent to fight Israel or that the Hebrew state would prepare to attack Turkey , his flights may well be only of the facade. ‘Saudi Arabia, explains researcher Salim çevik, specialist in Turkish politics in the region. He adopts a warrior tone under pressure from his Islamist base which refuses this strategy and forced him to take limited measures of economic retaliation against Tel Aviv. “Coming from various Islamist movements, supporters of a harder line try Regularly to occupy the Turkish ports to obtain a tightening of commercial sanctions against Israel and are indignant at the role played by Turkey in the transit of the precious oil of Azerbaijan (faithful ally of Ankara as Tel Aviv) towards Israel.
The personal sympathy of the Turkish leader may go to Palestinian Islamists, he knows as always being pragmatic. In November, rumors of a move from Hamas management from Qatar to Turkey was quickly denied by the authorities, after an American warning. The coming to power of Donald Trump, who bursts both his “friendship” with Erdogan and his proximity to the Israeli far right, Force Ankara to walk on eggs so as not to attract the wrath of the very versatile American leader .
True to his vision of international relations as a series of “deals”, the real estate magnate would even like to offer Ankara one of these agreements of which he has the secret, believes to know the Israeli press: a withdrawal of American troops from Syria, Leaving the field free to a Turkish military invasion against the Kurdish regions of the country in exchange for reconciliation with Israel, on the model of the Abraham agreements which he had obtained from several Arab countries. “This is the kind of deal that he could accept: Erdogan’s priority is to stay in power and straighten the bar of the economy. For this he needs to maintain good relations with the United States As with the Gulf countries, “said Salim çevik.
Disappointed by the halftone support provided by their old Iranian ally, members of Hamas will be able to continue to evolve freely in the streets of Istanbul and Ankara as long as they sing the praises of President Erdogan. But they will also have to continue to be satisfied on his part of symbolic support.
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