August 17, 2015 | Policy Brief

Turkey’s Terrorism Policies and the Case of Hamas

August 17, 2015 | Policy Brief

Turkey’s Terrorism Policies and the Case of Hamas

“A terrorist organization is a terrorist organization,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told a military ceremony Tuesday, defending Turkey’s two-front war against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Islamic State (IS). Ankara, he said, does not differentiate between terrorists, “regardless of their name, discourse, aim and symbols.” One day later, Erdoğan welcomed Hamas’ politburo chief Khaled Meshal to his palace for an hour-long private meeting.

Erdoğan’s close personal relationship with Meshal is well known. The Hamas leader was invited to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) annual congress as a speaker in 2012, where he hailed Erdoğan as the “leader of the Islamic world.” Erdoğan has a history of providing political support to the organization.

But Turkey’s support for Hamas is not only political. Turkey has become Hamas’ new unofficial headquarters: at least a dozen Hamas operatives have taken up residency in the country – including Saleh al-Arouri, the exiled head of Hamas’ military wing in the West Bank. Arouri is widely acknowledged as the mastermind behind the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in the West Bank last summer. He has also been identified as the planner of other military operations in recent years against Israel in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Amid U.S. pressure, Turkey reportedly agreed last week to deport Arouri, although Turkish officials have not confirmed. Questions surrounding Arouri’s deportation were widely believed to be the topic of Meshal’s private meeting with Erdoğan this week.

Even if Arouri was expelled, the AKP is unlikely to cut its ties with Hamas. AKP leaders have repeatedly said they do not consider Hamas a terrorist organization, and the group is not designated in Turkey. The AKP ignores Hamas’ practice of targeting civilians – as through the blind firing of rockets into Israel – choosing to focus instead on the Israeli policy of isolating the Gaza Strip as long as Hamas is in power there. In an exclusive interview with a Hamas publication on Monday, the AKP deputy chairman reiterated Turkey’s “comprehensive support” for the group, saying the “real terrorists are well known” – an implicit reference to Israel.

As long as Turkey continues to support Hamas, Erdoğan’s claim that Ankara treats all terrorists as the same will ring hollow. As Turkey justifies its fight against the PKK, an organization designated by the U.S. and EU, it ignores that Hamas (which is designated by the same entities) poses an equal threat to innocent civilians – just not Turkish ones.

Merve Tahiroglu is a research associate at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Find her on Twitter: @MerveTahiroglu

Issues:

Turkey