What's behind Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's 'firm' support for Hamas?

• Published date: 27 March 2024
• Author: SHIRA LI BARTOV/JTA
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The feud between the two countries did not end there. Last week, Israel's Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish envoy for a reprimand after Erdogan berated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said God would "make him miserable and curse him."

Israel's foreign minister shot back on social media, "There is no God who will listen to those who support the atrocities and crimes against humanity committed by your barbaric Hamas friends. Be quiet and shame on you!"

Is there really an acrimonious relationship between Israel and Turkey?

Those public comments paint a picture of an acrimonious relationship between Israel and Turkey, but scholars say the reality is more complicated. Erdogan has spoken warmly about Hamas for decades and engaged in several high-profile diplomatic spats with Israel since coming to power more than 20 years ago. But at the same time, trade between the two countries is booming and their relations were warming up before Oct. 7.

"We know from the past, Erdogan always calls Israel a 'terrorist state' and a 'genocidal state,' yet business goes on with the state of Israel," M. Hakan Yavuz, a professor of political science at the University of Utah and the author of 2021's "Erdogan: The Making of an Autocrat," told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Weeks after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack launched the war, killing some 1,200 and taking 250 hostages, Erdogan called Hamas a "liberation group." Turkey has hosted senior Hamas figures before and after the attack, including leader Ismail Haniyeh, who Erdogan's chief security adviser said "might have been" in Turkey on Oct. 7. During his speech earlier this month in Istanbul, Erdogan also said Netanyahu and his government "are writing their names next to Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, like today's Nazis."

But last month, Turkey's exports to Israel increased more than 20% to $422 million, surpassing the pre-Oct. 7 figure of $408.3 million, according to local reports. Israel ranked 13th on Turkey's export list in 2023.

According to Yavuz, Erdogan is ramping up his pro-Hamas rhetoric ahead of Turkey's local elections on March 31. Erdogan's Islamic conservative Justice and Development Party is attempting to win back offices in Istanbul and Ankara, where the secular opposition Republican People's Party took control in 2019, penetrating the president's near-total grip on power.

Yavuz believes that Erdogan is making a play for votes with the Turkish public, which broadly sympathizes with the Palestinians and has...