Hamas Leader Meshaal Pays 'Secretive' Visit to Turkey
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has quietly paid a visit to Ankara, raising new questions about Turkey's Middle East policies, writes Tulin Daloglu.
The state-controlled Anatolian News Agency reported on Tuesday, Feb. 19, after Hamas’ political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal left Turkey that he had met with Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan the day before, at the prime minister’s office in Ankara, to discuss the Palestinian reconciliation efforts.
“It was learned that Meshaal informed Erdogan about the efforts and the substance of the reconciliation talks between the Palestinian factions,” the news report said. “It was also stated that Prime Minister Erdogan told Meshaal, 'It is of great importance that the process to reconcile the Palestinian factions continues without interruption, and that it will also impact the peace process positively.'”
While Meshaal’s visit was described as “secretive” by Turkish television, the local Palestinian sources told Al-Monitor that he actually arrived in Ankara late on Sunday evening and left on Tuesday; however, it's bizarre for Meshaal to visit Ankara in such a covert manner.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since Meshaal first visited the Turkish capital in February 2006. Back then, Erdogan backed away from meeting the Hamas political bureau chief in person to avoid the inevitable Israeli and US reactions. Not that Erdogan considers Hamas as a terrorist organization as they do, but he probably calculated that Meshaal’s showing up in Ankara after it scored a win at the Palestinian elections was good enough to send the message as to where the Erdogan government stands on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
