Under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has become a haven for terrorist
operatives. It maintains open relations with extremist groups and.......


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Turkey’s Extremist Ties Make It Fertile Ground To Plot, Direct Attacks

(New York, N.Y.) — Under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has become a
haven for terrorist operatives. It maintains open relations with extremist
groups and harbors internationally sanctioned and wanted extremists affiliated
with the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas. Last week, it was revealed
that Turkish authorities, acting on information from Israeli intelligence,
stopped <[link removed]> the assassination
of Israeli businessman Yair Geller by Iranian agents. According to recentpress
reports
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, Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency has been involved in stopping 12
terrorist plots against Israelis in Turkey over the last two years alone.

 

Turkey has welcomed leaders of Hamas—a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist
Organization—for almost two decades, leading the group to create an official
bureau in Istanbul in 2012 after its leadership fled Syria at the beginning of
that country’s civil war. Turkish authorities, meanwhile, have reportedly
overseen Hamas military training exercises in the country and provided support
for the group’s activities. In 2020, Erdoğan granted passports to 12 senior
members of Hamas.

 

Hamas operatives working in Turkey actively recruit Palestinians living in
Turkey, Jordan, Syria, and other Middle East countries. The recruits are sent
to the bureau in Istanbul, where they reportedly receive security clearances
and begin training outside of the city. In addition, many of the weapons used
by Hamas in the West Bank are reportedly supplied by the group’s Istanbul
bureau. Hamas has also manipulated Turkish businesses for its own gain. In
January 2021, Israeli authorities seized more than $120,000 and goods worth
hundreds of thousands of shekels that Hamas was allegedly transferring from
Turkey to the West Bank. Hamas allegedly used Turkish company Tikkno Plus Ic Ve
Dis to transfer the money and goods.

 

Turkey’s ongoing relationship with Hamas complicates its efforts to repair
relations with Israel, which has demanded an end to Turkish support of Hamas as
part of any reconciliation between the two countries. On November 20, 2021,
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh praised Turkey for its “critical” role
providing political support for Hamas and the Palestinian cause. After a
November 21 Hamas attack killed one and wounded four in Jerusalem’s Old City,
Israeli security revealed the gunman had visited Turkey prior to the attack and
allegedly received instructions from Hamas leaders there. On November 22,
Israel’s Shin Bet security organization announced it had broken up a West Bank
Hamas cell directed by Hamas leaders in Turkey.

 

To read the Counter Extremism Project (CEP)’s resource Turkey: Extremism and
Terrorism, please click here <[link removed]>
.

 

To read CEP’s resource Turkey’s Approach to Countering Terrorism, please click
here
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.

 

To read CEP’s resource HARBORS Campaign: Turkey, please click here
<[link removed]>.

 

To read CEP’s resource Hamas, please click here
<[link removed]>.

 

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