Meeting with Hamas

Erdogan wants to free Israeli hostages

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21.04.2024 06:00

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Hamas foreign leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul on Saturday. This was met with much criticism. A new initiative for a ceasefire by the "sultan of peace" is likely to be behind the meeting.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is once again trying to be the "Sultan of Peace". He hosted the only serious, albeit ultimately unsuccessful, peace talks between Ukraine and Russia to date and offered to mediate between Israel and Hamas just a few days after the massacre by the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas, in which 1,200 Israelis were murdered and over 200 hostages abducted. Now he has made a new attempt.

Erdogan (center) as host (Bild: AP)
Erdogan (center) as host

In Istanbul on Saturday, Erdogan hosted Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in Qatar. Ankara does not consider Hamas a terrorist group and the militant group's political leaders are free to travel to Turkey.

From left: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyi at a meeting in Lviv (Bild: AFP)
From left: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyi at a meeting in Lviv
Putin also met Erdogan regularly. (Bild: Sputnik)
Putin also met Erdogan regularly.

It is assumed that Erdogan wants to seek the release of 130 Israeli hostages held by Hamas and subsequently a ceasefire between Israel and the terrorist organization, as the previous mediator, Qatar, says it has reached a low point in the negotiations. To this end, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also traveled to Qatar last week to discuss the matter with Hamas representatives.

Turkey has so far stood steadfastly behind Hamas. Whereas at the beginning of the war he was still sympathetic to the Israeli military action, a few days ago he compared Israel's head of government Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.

Erdogan met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the NATO summit in Madrid. (Bild: AFP)
Erdogan met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the NATO summit in Madrid.

Erdogan announced earlier in the week that his country was stepping up its diplomatic efforts to prevent the war in Gaza from being overshadowed by Israeli-Iranian tensions. Turkey's foreign policy calculations are behind this.

The "Arab Spring", which began in Tunisia in 2011, was a historic turning point in the Muslim world and Erdogan saw it as an opportunity to "give his country more influence", writes journalist and Turkey expert Cigdem Akyol in her book "Generation Erdogan". His key message came a little later, after his election victory in 2011, when he - then still Prime Minister - shouted a greeting to the Islamic world from the balcony of his official residence in Ankara to the cheering crowd: "I am the defender of Muslims all over the world who are being wronged". From Baghdad to Tehran, from Sarajevo to the West Bank, Gaza and Quds (Jerusalem). And Erdogan still sees it that way today: as the leader of the Islamic world.

However, if Erdogan actually succeeds in freeing the hostages, the "sultan of peace" would also enjoy enormous prestige in Israel.

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