Türkiye has reportedly asked Hamas political representatives to leave Türkiye after the latest Hamas attack on Israel. Photo from Erdoğan’s meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (left) and Hamas Political Bureau Chief İsmail Haniyeh in Ankara on July 26, 2023. (Photo: Turkish Presidency)
It is reported that Türkiye asked Hamas political representatives to leave the country on October 7, the day they launched an attack on Israel. Sources who asked not to be named confirmed YetkinReport the report by journalist Fehim Taştekin in Al Monitor, despite another Turkish source told Times of Israel that the report was “untrue”. Accordingly, the fact that Hamas does not care whether its targets are civilians or not in its attacks on Israel has caused serious discomfort in Ankara. With this development, Ankara, which has long accused Israel of indiscriminately killing civilians in its operations, does not want to be seen as indirectly giving support to the killing of civilians.
Al Monitor reported that Türkiye had “politely” shown Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh the door for this reason, but Turkish sources say Haniyeh has been living in Doha, Qatar, for some time. Hamas political figures Khaled Meshaal and Saleh al-Arouri are known to visit Türkiye frequently.
Hostage diplomacy continues
Despite asking Hamas to cease its political activity in the country, Türkiye has not severed contact with Hamas. One of the main reasons for this is that Hamas wants to exchange the hostages of various nationalities (and allegedly also from Türkiye) that it kidnapped from Israel during the attack for Hamas and other Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
On October 21, President Tayyip Erdoğan spoke by phone with Haniyeh about the hostage swap, a ceasefire, and the delivery of aid to civilians. On the same day, Erdoğan also spoke by phone with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the same issues.
Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan are conducting the open diplomacy on the Gaza crisis, including the hostage swap, while Turkish intelligence (MİT) director İbrahim Kalın is conducting the covert diplomacy. Türkiye is one of the three countries with channels of communication with Hamas, along with Egypt and Qatar, as the hub for the swap diplomacy.
After the Hamas attack
The United States and the European Union expect Türkiye, along with the other two countries, to work for the release of hostages held by Hamas, but at the same time contradict themselves by opposing its contact with Hamas. The Hamas attack has changed the plans and balances in Türkiye’s foreign relations as well as at the global level.
Türkiye has recently been in the process of normalizing relations with Israel. On September 20, President Tayyip Erdoğan met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York for the first time in years. Had it not been for the Hamas attack, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar would have traveled to Israel that week to discuss a pipeline project to transport natural gas to Europe. After the hospital attack in Gaza, Israel decided to withdraw all its diplomats from Türkiye on security grounds. Türkiye, however, most of the public, regardless of their political views, are in favor of protecting the rights of the Palestinian people – not particularly Hamas.
