Good relations between Erdogan and Hamas
Relations between the United States and Turkey, both NATO allies, seem to be on a rollercoaster ride. Whereas on Tuesday morning the US president, Donald Trump, praised his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for releasing the US pastor Andrew Brunson last year after two years' detention, according to Ankara, owing to his links with the opposition organisation led by the cleric Fethullah Gülen, hours later the US State Department issued a statement "strongly" opposing the meeting Erdogan had held to this end with two Hamas leaders.
"Hamas is designated as a terrorist organisation by the US and the European Union and both officials received by President Erdogan are global terrorists," said Morgan Ortagus, a State Department spokesman.
Erdogan met with the leaders of the Palestinian group on Saturday in Istanbul. The Hamas delegation was led by the head of its political office, Ismail Haniyeh, and included deputy director Saleh al-Arouri, who is wanted in the United States as a terrorist.
The communiqué launched from Washington had a quick response from Ankara, and in a statement of the foreign ministry it said that Turkey "completely rejects" the US criticism and asked Washington to use its influence for a "balanced policy" that would help to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instead of "serving the interests of Israel".
The USA has shown its growing concern for the close relationship between Turkey and Hamas. Meanwhile, in February Erdogan met with Haniyeh in Istanbul to discuss the region. "President Erogan's continuous approach to this terrorist organisation only serves to isolate Turkey from the international community, damages the interests of the Palestinian people and undermines the global efforts to prevent terrorist attacks launched from Gaza", reads the White House's statement.
For Ankara, Haniyeh is the legitimate representative of Hamas in the Gaza strip, because "it came to power after winning the democratic elections".
The Turkish president has stated on several occasions that he does not consider Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that has ruled the Gaza Strip, as a terrorist organisation, despite the fact that the international community does have it as such.
"Our support of the resistance of the Palestinians bothers (Israel). But in this context I do not consider Hamas as a terrorist organisation. Hamas is one of the resistance movements that works to liberate the occupied territories from the Palestinians," Erdogan said in 2018.
The ties between Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Hamas are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement that originated in Egypt and has inspired the ideologies of political, militant and extremist groups in the region.
This meeting between the Turkish president and the Hamas leader comes days after the announcement of the cooperation agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel where they agreed to establish full diplomatic relations in exchange for Tel Aviv removing its threat to annex Palestinian lands in the West Bank, an area controlled by Hamas' secular rival Fatah.
