Erdogan invites Hamas terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh to talks in Türkiye | The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com | Hana Levi Julien | 10 Nisan 5784 Thursday April 18, 2024

International Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is expected to arrive in Turkey this weekend for talks at the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called the terrorist leader “the leader of the Palestinian struggle.”

Erdogan has long been a staunch supporter of the Hamas terrorist organization, which grew out of the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood.

In response to the invitation, Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday: “We greatly appreciate the remarks of His Excellency the President of the Turkish Republic Erdoan, who reaffirmed his position to continue to defend the Palestinian people and their legitimate struggle for the liberation and independence of its people. to land.

Hamas led some 3,000 terrorists and their supporters in an invasion of Israel on October 7, torturing, mutilating, raping and massacring 1,200 people – including burning infants alive and entire families – while kidnapping 253 others. people in addition to thousands injured during the massacre. . It was the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Turkey's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, met on Tuesday (April 16) ahead of talks with the terrorist leader during a visit to Doha, the capital of Qatar, where Haniyeh lives an easy and luxurious life with his wife and his Hamas comrades. terrorist leader Khaled Meshaa.

Erdogan called Hamas a “liberation movement” during a speech to the Turkish parliament in Ankara on Wednesday. He was cheered by lawmakers who shouted “Death to Israel.”

While everyone was silent, we came out and defined Hamas as a resistance organization and not as a terrorist organization… From the podium of the UN, I declared and showed with maps that Israel had occupied Palestinian lands. We have always stood by our Palestinian brothers in every possible way, Erdogan said. I will continue to make the voice of the Palestinian people heard.

At a news conference in Ankara following a cabinet meeting this week, Erdogan blamed escalating tensions in the Middle East on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli leaders.

“Israel is trying to provoke a regional conflict, and its attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus was the last straw,” he told reporters, adding that new regional conflicts could arise as long as “cruelty and genocide” in Gaza would continue.

The “attack on the Iranian embassy” that Erdogan referred to was an April 1 drone strike in Damascus that demolished a building adjacent to the Iranian embassy – it did not hit the Iranian embassy at all. embassy – and targeted senior officials of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Generals and military advisors from the Quds Force, who met with terrorist leaders from Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese proxy. The building was marked as a military headquarters; the two assassinated top generals were responsible for Iranian military activities in Syria and Lebanon.

Iran claimed the building was a “consulate” as well as the residence of the Iranian ambassador to Syria.

The ambassador and his family were not present and were not injured.

Erdogan has also accused Israel of being behind his governments' coup attempts in recent decades, from 1980 to 2016.

Last month, Erdogan compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to Nazi Germany. This isn't the first time he's called Netanyahu a Nazi, and it probably won't be the last.

Netanyahu and his administration, with their crimes against humanity in Gaza, write their names next to Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, like today's Nazis, Erdogan said, accusing Netanyahu of continuing to “commit massacres against the Palestinian people” and promising that Turkey would do so. do what is necessary to hold Israeli officials accountable.

In response, the Israeli Prime Minister bluntly stated: Israel respects the laws of war and will not be subjected to the moral sermons of Erdogan, who supports the murderers and rapists of the terrorist organization Hamas, denies the Armenian genocide, massacres the Kurds in his own country and breaks down. against opponents of the regime and journalists.