Erdogan’s Reception for Hamas ‘Officials’ Further Dims Turkey’s Regional Reputation — and May Signal More Serpentine Moves in Syria

What’s Turkish for “Year of the Snake”? The unloved reptile and the slithery behavior often ascribed to it could be a fitting metaphor for Turkey lately — starting with President Erdogan’s rolling out the welcome mat for a Hamas delegation on Wednesday. That he did so could be considered an affront to anyone who views Hamas as a terrorist group. Most everything in the Middle East being interlinked, it also does not augur well for the deepening Turkish footprint in Syria. The meeting at Ankara was Mr. Erdogan’s first one with so-called officials of Hamas since the ceasefire deal between Israel and the terrorist group. Unlike its fellow NATO allies Turkey refuses to call Hamas a terrorist organization, despite the long catalog of atrocities it has committed, culminating in the murderous attacks of October 7, 2023 against Israel.The Turkish president’s office released a photo that showed the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin, and Mr. Erdogan’s chief advisor, Akif Kılıç, seated alongside a senior Hamas heavy, Mohammed Darwish, and other Hamas terrorists in a well-appointed room of the presidential palace. According to Turkish newspaper Haberturk, Mr. Erdogan said that Hamas’s “struggle in Gaza” reaffirmed that “the spirit of resistance will endure.” He added that he “hopes that the second and third stages of the ceasefire will be completed successfully.”President Erdogan has been a critic of Israel’s ongoing efforts to dislodge Hamas from the Gaza Strip. Last year, a Turkish official even accused Israel of targeting Turkey’s president. There is no love lost between Ankara and Jerusalem these days, but the optics of high-ranking Turkish officials meeting with the remnants of Hamas in the Turkish capital are particularly unsavory at this delicate moment in the region. It not only undercuts Turkey’s regional aspirations and risks antagonizing Israel further but makes some observers second-guess its all-in approach to post-Assad Syria. Mr. Kalin, the intel chief, paid a visit to Damascus in December — the first official visit of a senior foreign official to the Syrian capital after the ouster of Bashad al-Assad. Turkish trade with Syria is already burgeoning, and while there is nothing inherently sinister about that, when it comes to redefining maritime boundaries, things get more complicated. Turkey, of course, was the principle backer of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group that helped topple Assad. On Wednesday, the factions that drove out the dictator named the former HTS rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, as the country’s interim president. Mr. al-Sharaa was once aligned with al-Qaida, but has disavowed those ties. Washington canceled a $10 million bounty that had been placed on him following the visit of an American delegation to Damascus last month. Syria is on Secretary Rubio’s radar, but how things will evolve on the ground is still an open question. Another question is whether Syria’s new interim president can still be considered Islamist. In a video released after the announcement of his appointment, Mr. al-Sharaa said “If the victor is arrogant after his victory and forgets the favor of Allah upon him, it will lead him to tyranny.”Syria’s first post-Assad government has already been accused of trying to impose an Islamist agenda on the education curriculum. The Assad family is Alawite, an offshoot of Shia Islam. Hamas, or what is left of it, is ideologically a Sunni Islamist group. Turkish Muslims are predominantly Sunni. So, beyond the commercial dealings with the new Syria, is there something else going on? Is Turkey actually aiming, as Steve Bannon recently said, “to restore the Ottoman Empire and become the new caliphate in the region”? Whether it is or not, the Turkish hospitality shown to Hamas cannot be seen in isolation — and if it leads to more Turkish isolation from its more morally clear-headed friends in the North Atlantic Treaty, Ankara could eventually find itself more isolated, too.

Erdogan’s Reception for Hamas ‘Officials’ Further Dims Turkey’s Regional Reputation — and May Signal More Serpentine Moves in Syria

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