Turkey Plays Up Humanitarian Role During Blinken Visit
Turkish foreign policy swings toward Palestinian support during US secretary of state’s visit
Turkey is ramping up attempts to present itself as a primary provider of aid to Gaza as it shifts more strongly to its pro-Palestinian side and further away from being friendly to Israel.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan about how to increase humanitarian assistance into Gaza during a meeting in Ankara on Monday, while the Turkish state news agency’s headline for the visit was about an agreement between the two that aid to Gaza would be uninterrupted.
Ankara moved quickly to become a key supplier of aid to Gaza, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stating that his country was preparing to send humanitarian assistance two days after Hamas’ attack.
Turkey first sought to balance its support for Palestinians and its relations with Israel, which had undergone a rapprochement this year.
However, Ankara’s hopes of being a mediator in the conflict have faded, and its rhetoric against Israel has become stronger, with the Turkish ambassador to Israel being recalled on Saturday. This has left Turkey with the role of humanitarian provider as one of its central purposes in the conflict.
Analysts have said that Erdoğan tried to present himself as a protector of Palestinians and a leader of Muslims around the world, while he and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have used aid and “humanitarian diplomacy” to increase Turkey’s influence with countries in the region.
Meliha Benli Altunışık, a professor in the International Relations Department at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, wrote that “the AKP humanitarianism, cast in the language of [humanitarian diplomacy], has not shied away from pursuing political, economic and military interests.”
The Turkish Red Crescent has also been a central actor in Turkey providing aid to Palestinians, stating that its first shipment for people in Gaza landed in Egypt on October 13.
While its parent organization, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, states that impartiality and neutrality are some of its core values, its Turkish affiliate has made politically contentious remarks.
On October 9, the organization wrote on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, that the conflict was between Israel and Gaza, making no mention of Hamas. On the day of a blast at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, the head of The Turkish Red Crescent, Dr. Fatma Meriç Yılmaz, wrote on X that “Deliberate attacks on hospitals are heinous war crimes. … Such actions stain the perpetrators with the darkest of moral and legal stains.”
Israel faced accusations it had targeted the hospital, but it proved to be a misfired rocket from the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad within Gaza.
The US has since said its intelligence supports Israel’s claim, while news organizations, such as The New York Times, have stated that the evidence so far does point to a “malfunctioning Palestinian rocket.”
