Since Hamas carried out its barrage of deadly attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, Turkey has come under the spotlight for its relationship with the Islamist militant group. Ankara has been a material supporter and enabler of Hamas since 2011. However, until last week, this was mainly perceived by the United States to be a problem only in that it served as a roadblock in Turkey’s attempts to normalize its relationship with Israel. Now, the United States and Israel will likely increase pressure on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to cut ties with Hamas.
What are the chances that Erdogan will comply with such a request—and why does he have a relationship with Hamas to begin with?
Forget cutting ties with Hamas; Erdogan is unlikely to even unequivocally denounce Hamas’s recent atrocities, which killed approximately 1,200 Israeli citizens, as a brazen act of terrorism. The reason for this is simple: Erdogan sympathizes with Hamas’s cause. In a tweet he sent addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018, Erdogan remarked, “Hamas is not a terrorist organization and Palestinians are not terrorists. It is a resistance movement that defends the Palestinian homeland against an occupying power.”
