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Turkey Is Siding With Hamas. What Is The Significance Of This?

January 6, 2009

Turkey Is Siding With Hamas. What Is The Significance Of This? Martin McCauley writes: Turkey was quick to condemn the Israeli air strikes on Gaza, beginning on 27 December.

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs highlighted the number of civilian casualties and the risk that the conflict might undermine security in the Middle East. Turkey has been attempting to improve its profile in the region through non-military means. These include trade relations, cultural exchanges and acting as a regional peace broker. Ankara, for example, has been attempting to bring Israel and Syria closer together.

Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has voiced his disillusionment at Israel’s action. He saw it as shutting the door on diplomacy. He characterised it as ‘aggression’ and suggested that any diplomatic contact with Israel at present was meaningless. The Turkish public has been expressing its outrage at events in Gaza on a daily basis.

Israel’s action is a slap in the face for Turkey. Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had visited Ankara a few days before the assault on Gaza. Under discussion were Israeli-Palestinian relations. Olmert asked Erdogan to encourage the Syrians to revive the talks with Israel. Erdogan was looking forward to playing a more assertive role in the search for a Middle East settlement in 2009. It now appears that dialogue has been replaced by use of force as a way of resolving the intractable problems of the region.

Erdogan has not given up. Immediately after the assault on Gaza he telephoned world leaders as well as the UN Secretary-General and EU officials. He embarked on a Middle East tour to find a peaceful solution to the crisis. He met leaders in Egypt, Jordan and Syria and Palestinian politicians. He then travelled to Saudi Arabia. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Erdogan proposed a two stage plan to resolve the crisis. The first stage would be a ceasefire supervised by international peace keepers. Turkey would supply some of these troops. This is reminiscent of the international peace keeping force stationed on the Lebanese-Israeli border after the conflict in 2006. The second stage would be to bring together the various Palestinian groups in order to find common ground, resulting in finding a permanent solution.

Erdogan is aware that Arab powers such as Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and many Gulf states see Hamas as a threat to their security. Nevertheless, he has argued against isolating Hamas. Israel is as much to blame for the rocket attacks as Hamas, he said, maintaining that Hamas has observed the six month truce brokered by Egypt in June 2008. ‘Yet Israel did not lift the embargo. The people of Gaza are living in an open prison’, he stated. He offered to sponsor Hamas’s proposals for a ceasefire at the United Nations because Hamas’s trust in the Palestinian Authority and Egypt has been undermined. He claimed that Hamas has full confidence in Turkey as an intermediary.

Turkey is at present a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. However, the United States has made clear it will veto any Security Council resolution which aims at halting Israeli attacks on Gaza. Turkey is keen to work together with Egypt at the United Nations to promote the Palestinian cause there.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan managed to arrange an emergency meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. It met on 3 January and its final communiqué condemned Israel for its ‘barbaric assault on the people of Gaza’. Turkey also called on the Arab League to broker a ceasefire and promote reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah.

Turkey has joined the ‘radical arc’ of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon in siding with Hamas. Will this scupper its relations with Israel? Turkey’s diplomatic initiatives have demonstratively excluded Israel. Are we witnessing a gradual change in Turkish relations with the United States? Ankara has chosen to defend Hamas against the wishes of Washington?

Is Turkey’s stand on Hamas about justice and humanitarian values or has it more to do with the growth of Islamic influence in the country? Erdogan’s government has found an issue which has stoked anti-American and anti-Israeli anger among the Turkish population. The Gaza conflict may lead to Turkey defining itself more in terms of its Islamic heritage.

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