Erdogan’s Turkey continues to support Hamas and host Hamas leaders

In a recent interview with Newsweek, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of “pushing a false narrative that seeks to depict his nation as a threat to Israel and the region as a whole.” He insisted Turkey has “no hostility toward the Israeli people,” and says Ankara only opposes policies it believes violate international law or destabilize the region.

Turkey, however, has been a vocal supporter of Hamas throughout its current war with Israel, which began when several thousand Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

Contrary to Erdogan’s allegations, Turkey maintains a close, long-standing relationship with Hamas, hosting its senior officials, offering safe haven since at least 2011, and providing financial, political and logistical support. Despite pressure from the US and Israel, Turkey continues to engage with Hamas.

Most recently, Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan met with a Hamas delegation that Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khalil al-Hayya led on July 29 in Ankara. Turkish National Intelligence Organization head Ibrahim Kalin also met with al-Hayya and the accompanying delegation in Istanbul, according to Turkish sources. Previously, on March 22, Turkey’s intelligence chief Kalin once again met with Hamas politburo members in Istanbul.

According to a July 6 report by Asharq Al-Awsat, the leading Pan-Arab newspaper,

Hamas has shifted much of its organizational center of gravity toward Türkiye in recent months, according to meetings, activities and public positions by the group, after years in which it kept its operations there at a distance and reduced its presence.

Erdogan routinely weaponizes the memory of the Holocaust, distorting history to vilify Israel by drawing grotesque, calculated parallels to Hitler and Nazi Germany. In December 2023, Erdogan called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “worse than Hitler.” The Turkish leader has also been outspoken about his support for Hamas, claiming it is not a terrorist organization, but a resistance group.

“No one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organization,” he said in a speech in 2024. “Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them.”

Turkey allows Hamas members to operate freely in Istanbul. According to a 2021 report from the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, Hamas’ Istanbul headquarters has directed hundreds of terror attacks against Israelis, and laundered millions of dollars. Some Hamas members have received Turkish citizenship and passports.

The offices that Hamas established in Turkey have also planned and directed terrorist activities in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Turkish non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as the Humanitarian Relief Foundation/IHH, have reportedly transferred funds to Hamas.

Turkey-based Hamas operatives have used financial institutions in the country for fundraising and money laundering. There are reports of Hamas financial networks operating in Turkey, including investments in Turkish companies and currency exchanges, that channel funds to the organization.

In 2025, the Israeli military announced it had uncovered what it called an Iran-directed secret money-exchange network that Gaza-born operatives run in Turkey, alleging it funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas leadership.

According to Avichay Adraee, an IDF spokesperson, the network exploited Turkish financial infrastructure to move large sums of money earmarked for Hamas activities.

The Israeli spokesman added the Gaza-born exchangers worked “in full cooperation” with Iran, transferring what he said were hundreds of millions of dollars directly to Hamas and its senior commanders. He noted the network operated a wide economic portfolio inside Turkey, including receiving, storing and moving Iranian funds on behalf of the group.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has for years provided financial support to terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which much of the international community designates as terrorist organizations.

Turkish officials, meanwhile, have announced that Turkey and Iran are allies. Devlet Bahceli, head of Erdogan’s coalition partner, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said: “The horizons of Ankara and Tehran are looking in the same direction. The fate of Ankara, Baghdad, and Damascus, and of Jerusalem and Gaza, are united on the same common ground.”

Turkey’s support for Hamas stems from the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) ideological connection with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), of which Hamas is the Palestinian branch. The Muslim Brotherhood ideology is a central axis of the foreign policy of Erdogan’s Turkey. The MB ideology aims to expand Islamic rule throughout the world, conquer nations, and impose sharia law on them.

Meanwhile, former European Commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas told Euractiv that Turkey should decide whether it supports the EU-designated terrorist organization Hamas or stands with Europe.

Schinas argued that Turkey – a NATO member – “owes” Europe a clear answer on whether it stands with “Hamas or us.” “They need to be able to tell us where they stand. If they stand with us, that’s a clearer path. If they stand with them, I’m not sure they want to be with them,” he said.

In fact, Erdogan’s regime could not be clearer on where it stands regarding Hamas. Political analysts Blaise Misztal and Jonah Brody note:

For nearly two decades, Turkey has hosted Hamas leaders, pledged hundreds of millions in funding, and allowed front companies tied to the group to manage much of its $500 million in overseas assets. US sanctions have repeatedly targeted these networks, yet many still operate freely as Turkey refuses to join its US and European allies in designating Hamas a terrorist group.

Since Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Erdoğan has been the group’s loudest defender and Israel’s most vehement critic. Turkey has refused to condemn the October 7 massacre. Not content to declare that ‘Hamas is not a terrorist organization,’ Erdoğan has called Hamas militants ‘freedom fighters.’ His government coordinated with Hamas leaders, sent aid convoys, and treated Hamas operatives in Turkish hospitals. Erdoğan accused Israel of ‘surpassing Hitler in barbarism,’ and has even threatened to ‘enter’ Israel militarily, as Turkey did in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Now, after pushing Hamas to accept the ceasefire, Erdoğan boasts that Turkey is ‘ready to provide all kinds of support to Gaza.’ The nature of that support was clear when, two weeks after the ceasefire went into effect, Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan hosted a Hamas delegation in Istanbul. This is but the latest in a series of Erdoğan’s attempts to cast himself as a global power broker and Turkey as the linchpin of a new regional order. But beyond mere grandstanding, Erdoğan is pursuing two distinct interests in Gaza: ideological and political.

Much as in Syria and Egypt previously, Erdoğan hopes to transform Gaza in his own image—Islamist-ruled and an Ankara client. To that end, he wants to deploy Turkish troops in a stabilization force and act as a ‘guarantor’ for Palestinians.

To this, the United States cannot and should not acquiesce. Any Turkish military involvement in Gaza would sabotage the peace plan’s central aim: disarming Hamas. President Donald Trump’s framework calls for destroying all ‘military, terror, and offensive infrastructure’ and establishing a ‘deradicalized, terror-free zone.’ Turkey—which has spent two decades ensuring Hamas’s survival—cannot credibly enforce that mandate. Any Turkish role would give Ankara leverage to obstruct disarmament while preserving Hamas’s political networks. A country that views Hamas as a resistance movement cannot be trusted to dismantle it.

Turkey has been an official EU candidate country since 1999, and a member of NATO since 1950. Turkey’s current government is affiliated with the global Muslim Brotherhood movement, a supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah, the al-Qaeda-affiliated forces in Syria and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Yet in January 2026, President Donald Trump invited Turkey to join the “Board of Peace” for Gaza. Stabilizing Gaza with Turkey’s involvement is a contradiction in terms. Given Ankara’s long-standing support for Hamas and other Islamic terrorist movements, including Turkey in Gaza’s peace process only serves to strengthen Hamas.

Uzay Bulut is a Turkey-born journalist formerly based in Ankara.