Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that more than one thousand Hamas jihadists have received medical care in clinics across Turkey.
Erdogan refused to admit Hamas was a terrorist group, instead describing it as a “resistance movement” . ,
This greatly disappointed Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was meeting with Erdogan in Ankara to relieve tensions between Greece and Turkey. The two officials were holding a joint press conference when Erdogan revealed Turkey had been treating Hamas soldiers.
When Erdogan said he was” saddened” that Mitsotakis continued to think of Hamas as a terrorist organization, Mitsotakis curtly responded,” Let’s agree to disagree”.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis ( L ) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ( R ) speak to the media after their talks in Ankara, Turkey, on May 13, 2024. ( AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)
It should be noted that Erdogan has no problem using the term “terrorists” to identify fanatics who oppose his government. Erdogan and his top officials tend to identify every military Kurd in the Middle East as a criminal, insisting all of them are in league with the harsh separatist PKK party in Turkey, including Kurdish militias that were instrumental in helping European powers beat the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
The Times of Israel ( TOI ) noted that Hamas has maintained an office in Turkey since 2011 when Turkey helped to broker an agreement for the freedom of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Erdogan, who has been in authority for two years, reportedly agreed to be slowly involved in the discussions after a specific appeal from Shalit’s parents.
Erdogan loudly insisted that Hamas should not be treated as a “terrorist business” even after it murdered, raped, burned, decapitated, and kidnapped more than 1, 200 Jewish citizens on October 7.
” Hamas is not a criminal business. It is a group of mujahideen ( holy warriors ) defending their lands”, the Turkish leader said, insisting that the Israelis were the real terrorists.  ,
Like another apologists for Hamas cruelty, Erdogan said that Israel has no natural right of self- defense that would support its defense response against the October 7 attack. The Greek chief has since compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler on many occasions, claiming Israel’s conflict in Gaza is an act of genocide like the Holocaust.
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Erdogan limited trade with Israel in April and halted it completely in early May to rally the war in Gaza. Turkey also said it would join South Africa’s case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice ( ICU).
On Sunday, Erdogan complained that the U. S. and Europe were not doing enough to force Israel into a ceasefire before it could start its last operations against Hamas. He again suddenly assailed Netanyahu as a murderous dictator who wants to “attack the honest folks in Rafah”:
We saw that nations who lecture us on individual rights and freedoms at every opportunity boldly support those who massacred 35, 000 Gazans. We saw that those who said the right to protest was sacred until yesterday ca n’t tolerate demonstrations that support Palestine.
He threw in some groans at the United States and quoted Hamas advertising on Gaza fatalities.
Given this environment, it would not be surprising if Erdogan did get Greek facilities to treat Hamas jihadists, but he did not offer information of when or how this was done. Getting a thousand injured Hamas fighters out of Gaza would be very difficult, and getting them to Turkey would also be a challenge.
Two Turkish sources told Middle East Eye on Monday that Erdogan “misspoke”, and there are a thousand Palestinian civilians receiving treatment in Turkish hospitals, not Hamas fighters.
