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Turkey Assures Palestinians of Support as Relations With Israel Improve (with VIDEO)
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, right, and Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki enter the Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry in Ramallah in the West Bank on May 24, 2022. (Mohammad Al-Kassim)

Turkey Assures Palestinians of Support as Relations With Israel Improve (with VIDEO)

Many Palestinians are hopeful that warming ties between Israel and Turkey will benefit them as well, expert says

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu assured his Palestinian counterpart on Tuesday during a visit to the West Bank that Ankara’s support for the Palestinians is solid despite Turkey’s warming ties with Israel.

In the first such visit by a senior Turkish official in more than a decade, Turkey’s top diplomat is on a two-day official trip to the Palestinian territories and Israel that began in Ramallah. Standing next to Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki, Çavuşoğlu reiterated his country’s backing for an independent and sovereign Palestine.

“Our support for the Palestinian cause is completely independent from the course of our relations with Israel,” he told reporters.

Malki praised the strong ties between the PA and Turkey, describing Çavuşoğlu’s visit as “historic,” and ties with Turkey as “distinguished, authentic and strong,” as officials from the two sides signed nine cooperation agreements.

“What we heard has reinforced our position and what we do to achieve freedom and independence,” Malki said during a joint news conference.

“Turkish stances are consistent with aspirations of the Palestinian people and their cause,” Malki said, praising Ankara’s role in supporting the Palestinian people and their efforts to establish an independent state.

The Turkish foreign minister wants to convey a message to the Palestinians that Turkey’s positions have not changed toward the Palestinian cause and that Turkey supports the Palestinian cause

Çavuşoğlu aimed to ease the Palestinian concerns of Turkey’s thawing relations with Israel, saying that his country will pursue normalizing relations with Israel in coordination with the Palestinian Authority.

Ibrahim Rabaia, professor of political science at Birzeit University, told The Media Line that the visit by the Turkish foreign minister to Ramallah cannot be separated from his visit to Israel and the improving ties between Turkey and Israel.

“The Turkish foreign minister wants to convey a message to the Palestinians that Turkey’s positions have not changed toward the Palestinian cause and that Turkey supports the Palestinian cause,” Rabaia said.

He adds that there is “popular disappointment” among large sectors of the Palestinian people over Turkish-Israeli rapprochement.

“I think that the most concerned party is the Hamas movement, as a result of its ties and presence on the ground in Turkey, and the talk about understandings that there will be restrictions on the work of Hamas in Turkey after the warmth in relations,” he said.

Ties between Turkey and Israel have been effectively nonexistent for more than a decade, in which Ankara fostered a close relationship with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group which took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Ahmad Rafiq Awad, president of the Center for Jerusalem Studies at Al-Quds University, told The Media Line that many Palestinians are hopeful that warming ties between Israel and Turkey will benefit the Palestinians as well.

Rafiq Awad explains that the diplomatic thaw between Israel and Turkey has created challenges for Hamas, which counts on Ankara’s support, but also could offer it a more “trustworthy” broker to deal with Israel.

“There may be those on the Palestinian side who consider restoring this relationship with Israel an opportunity for Turkish intervention as a mediator to resolve some issues and perhaps help restore the political track between the Palestinians and the Israelis,” said Rafiq Awad.

For years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has championed the Palestinian cause and has been a fierce critic of Israel, but that has changed lately, and Ankara has shifted its regional policy toward countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel.

“Turkey today is calmer and more understanding with the region and wants to convey a message that it is not in a state in conflict with any regional actor, including Israel, especially since the relationship with Israel is a condition for better a relationship with the United States,” according to Rabaia.

Ties between the two countries reached rock bottom in 2010 after the death of 10 Turkish civilians in an Israeli raid on the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara ship, part of a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid that tried to breach the naval blockade of Gaza.

However, relations saw a major improvement when Erdoğan called Israeli President Isaac Herzog following his inauguration in July, which was followed by an official visit by Herzog to Ankara, the first trip by an Israeli head of state to Turkey since 2007.

Çavuşoğlu on Wednesday is scheduled to meet with Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov.

He is also expected to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

 

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