Hamas, Under Increasing Pressure in Turkey, Considers Relocating to Malaysia
Senior Hamas officials said Monday that Ankara was tightening its restrictions on Hamas leaders and activists living in Turkey, deporting dozens, and preventing others from entering. The New Arab reported that anonymous Gaza-based Hamas sources said the Turkish measures followed an Israeli request in the framework of Jerusalem’s restoration of diplomatic and economic ties with Ankara.
Ankara “is facing very difficult economic pressures, which prompted it to re-normalize its relations with regional and international countries,” The New Arab quoted a Hamas source as saying. “Turkey submitted to international and Israeli blackmail in order to save its economy (…) and we knew very well that restoring relations with Israel would have a political price. Therefore, we were not surprised by the Turkish request from many of the movement’s members to leave the country,” he added.
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Turkey, before the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had close relations with Israel. But Erdoğan has been an outspoken critic of the Jewish state. Turkey severed relations with Israel after the Gaza Freedom Flotilla incident in 2010, during which eight Turkish nationals and a Turkish American were killed, and dozens of activists, as well as 10 Israeli soldiers, were injured when Israeli commandos boarded the Turkish ship MV Mavi Marmara. The ship was part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that had announced its intention to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, breaking the Israeli blockade of the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
The incident led to a strengthening of relations between Hamas and Turkey. But the close Hamas-Turkish ties seem to be coming to an end. In April, the Turkish Embassy in Israel condemned a Palestinian attack on civilians in Tel Aviv that killed three Israelis. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem criticized Turkey for its condemnation, saying in a statement that “the resistance by the Palestinians is guaranteed by all international laws” and described the terrorist attack as a “heroic operation” and a “natural and legitimate response” to Israeli “crimes against our people, our land, our sanctuary, and Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
One Hamas source told The New Arab that the organization would “so far … not take any hostile stance toward Turkey” for improving its ties with Israel. But the Islamist movement was looking for an alternative country in which to set up shop, he said, noting that “Malaysia is currently the best country to receive Hamas members.”
