Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Said On Monday, it was announced that more than 1,000 Hamas terrorists were being treated in hospitals across Turkey.
President Erdogan has refused to recognize Hamas as a terrorist group, instead describing it as a “resistance movement.”
This greatly disappointed Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who had been meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara to ease tensions between Greece and Turkey. The two leaders were holding a joint press conference when Erdogan revealed that Turkey was treating Hamas fighters.
When President Erdogan said he was “sad” that Mitsotakis continued to consider Hamas a terrorist organization, Mitsotakis curtly responded, “Let’s agree to disagree.”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (left) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (right) speak to the media after a meeting in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilisi)
It should be noted that President Erdoğan has no problem using the word “terrorist” to describe the extremists he opposes. his government. President Erdoğan and his senior officials explain Condemns all armed Kurds in the Middle East as terrorists, claiming they are all in league with Turkey’s violent separatist party, the PKK, and that some of them helped Western countries defeat Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. It also claimed to include Kurdish militias.
of era of israel (TOI) I got it. Hamas has maintained an office in Turkey since 2011, when Turkey helped broker a deal seeking the freedom of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. President Erdoğan, who has been in power for 20 years, reportedly After a personal appeal from Shalit’s father, they quietly agreed to participate in negotiations.
erdogan aloud claimed that Hamas insisted it should not be treated as a “terrorist organization” even after killing, raping, burning, beheading and kidnapping more than 1,200 Israeli civilians on October 7.
“Hamas is not a terrorist organization. It is a group of Mujahideen (The holy warriors) are defending their land,” the Turkish leader said, claiming that the Israelis were the real terrorists.
Like other apologists for Hamas’ brutality, Erdogan said Israel has no inherent right to self-defense that would justify a military response to the October 7 attack. Turkish leaders have since compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on several occasions claimed to Adolf Hitler that Israel’s war in Gaza was an act of genocide, similar to the Holocaust.
Israel fights terrorism: Is Israel’s response to Hamas legal and just?
President Erdogan restricted trade with Israel in April, stopped It took place entirely in early May to protest the war in Gaza.Türkiye too Said It will join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICU).
On Sunday, President Erdoğan complained The United States and Europe were not doing enough to pressure Israel into a ceasefire before it launched its final operation against Hamas. He once again attacked Prime Minister Netanyahu as a genocidal dictator who wants to “attack the innocent people of Rafah.”
We have seen countries that lecture us about human rights and freedoms at every opportunity openly support those who massacred 35,000 Gazans. It turns out that those who until yesterday held that the right to protest was sacrosanct cannot tolerate demonstrations in support of Palestine.
He made several complaints against the United States and cited Hamas propaganda about victims in Gaza.
Given this context, it would not be surprising if President Erdogan ordered Turkish hospitals to treat Hamas terrorists, although he did not provide details on when or how he did so. It will be extremely difficult to rescue 1,000 wounded Hamas fighters from Gaza, and it will be difficult to get them to Turkey.
Two Turkish sources Said Middle East Eye said on Monday that Erdogan had made a “gaffe” and that 1,000 Palestinian civilians, not Hamas fighters, were being treated in Turkish hospitals.
