Turkey’s Unique Position for Mediation Between Palestinians and Israel

Introduction

Turkey stands out as a poten­tial medi­a­tor in the Pales­tin­ian-Israeli con­flict due to its rare abil­i­ty to engage with both Hamas and Israel. Amid the con­flict in Gaza, Turkey has emerged as a medi­a­tor, aim­ing not only to halt Israel’s attacks on the Pales­tin­ian enclave but also to estab­lish a last­ing peace in one of the world’s most endur­ing con­flicts.

Pres­i­dent Recep Tayyip Erdo­gan has tak­en the lead in Turkey’s efforts, seek­ing to bol­ster Turkey’s glob­al influ­ence. He aspires to repli­cate Turkey’s suc­cess in medi­at­ing between Ukraine and Rus­sia, where a deal allowed Kyiv to export grain.

The recent hos­til­i­ties between Hamas and Israel, trig­gered by Hamas’s attack on Octo­ber 7 and Israel’s sub­se­quent airstrikes in Gaza, occurred as Ankara and Tel Aviv were work­ing to improve their rela­tions after more than a decade of strained ties.

Turkey’s Connections with Hamas

Turkey main­tains diplo­mat­ic rela­tions with Hamas, dis­tin­guish­ing it as one of the few coun­tries with influ­ence over the group that has gov­erned Gaza since 2007. Notably, Turkey has refrained from des­ig­nat­ing Hamas as a “ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion,” a stance that has sparked objec­tions from Tel Aviv, which claims that Turkey-based Hamas mem­bers have been involved in plot­ting attacks against Israel.

Over the course of 17 years, Turkey has devel­oped a sub­stan­tial com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nel with Hamas, which is now con­sid­ered a valu­able asset.

This rela­tion­ship has proven cru­cial dur­ing times of cri­sis, and it’s this unique com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nel that Turk­ish offi­cials, includ­ing Pres­i­dent Erdo­gan and For­eign Min­is­ter Hakan Fidan, have lever­aged to posi­tion Ankara as a cen­tral play­er in resolv­ing the recent Gaza con­flict.

Their imme­di­ate pri­or­i­ties include pro­vid­ing human­i­tar­i­an aid to Gaza­’s civil­ians and work­ing towards the release of around 200 hostages held by Hamas.

Speak­ing from Beirut, For­eign Min­is­ter Fidan stat­ed that var­i­ous coun­tries have reached out to Turkey seek­ing assis­tance in secur­ing the release of their cit­i­zens, and dis­cus­sions have begun with the polit­i­cal sec­tion of Hamas.

Their pri­ma­ry focus is on ensur­ing the safe release of chil­dren and for­eign nationals.

Strong Palestinian Support in Turkey

Turkey has wit­nessed wide­spread pub­lic back­ing for the Pales­tin­ian cause, as demon­strat­ed by pro-Pales­tine ral­lies draw­ing thou­sands of Turk­ish cit­i­zens in recent days. This sup­port coex­ists with Turkey’s his­tor­i­cal rela­tion­ship with Israel, which has expe­ri­enced ups and downs.

In 2010, a sig­nif­i­cant down­turn occurred when Israel’s actions led to the deaths of nine Turks aboard a Free­dom Flotil­la attempt­ing to deliv­er human­i­tar­i­an aid to the besieged Gaza Strip. A tenth indi­vid­ual lat­er suc­cumbed after years in a coma. Although rela­tions were par­tial­ly restored in 2016, they once again soured in 2018.

Sev­er­al events con­tributed to this strain, includ­ing Israel pass­ing a law that declared itself the “nation-state of the Jew­ish peo­ple.” Erdo­gan crit­i­cized this move. Addi­tion­al­ly, the relo­ca­tion of the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and Israel’s actions dur­ing the Great March of Return in Gaza fur­ther esca­lat­ed ten­sions.

Despite these devel­op­ments, Pres­i­dent Erdo­gan con­tin­ues to be high­ly respect­ed by Pales­tini­ans. His out­spo­ken crit­i­cisms of Israel’s poli­cies towards the Pales­tini­ans have earned him admi­ra­tion in Gaza, the West Bank, and many parts of the Arab world.

Even as Turkey shift­ed its approach last year to pur­sue region­al rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, mend­ing ties with Egypt, Sau­di Ara­bia, the UAE, and Israel, Erdo­gan’s stand­ing in the eyes of Pales­tini­ans remains strong.

New Methodologies

Fidan has engaged with region­al lead­ers and held dis­cus­sions with US Sec­re­tary of State Antony Blinken and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Ankara aims to facil­i­tate a “per­ma­nent and com­pre­hen­sive peace” through a two-state solu­tion and sug­gests that Turkey could play a role as a guar­an­tor. He empha­sized the need for new method­olo­gies, as old approach­es may not lead to a last­ing solu­tion, and these ideas will be fur­ther dis­cussed in upcom­ing meet­ings, as stat­ed dur­ing a joint news con­fer­ence with his Lebanese coun­ter­part on Tuesday.

Ozhan believes that Turkey is well-posi­tioned to pro­pose a polit­i­cal frame­work for dis­cus­sions on the future of Pales­tini­ans, as he empha­sizes the impor­tance of ask­ing the right ques­tions to avoid tem­po­rary or arbi­trary solu­tions.

Fer­hat Pir­inc­ci, an inter­na­tion­al rela­tions pro­fes­sor at Bur­sa Uludag Uni­ver­si­ty in Turkey, empha­sized Turkey’s long­stand­ing advo­ca­cy for resolv­ing var­i­ous issues, par­tic­u­lar­ly frozen con­flicts, through peace­ful means, ulti­mate­ly paving the way for sus­tain­able peace.

How­ev­er, Turkey’s pur­suit of a last­ing solu­tion could face obsta­cles if both sides fail to engage mean­ing­ful­ly. Taha Ozhan stressed that address­ing issues like occu­pa­tion and the sit­u­a­tion of Pales­tine and Pales­tini­ans is essen­tial; oth­er­wise, progress remains stag­nant and lim­it­ed to mere dia­logue.

The suc­cess of medi­a­tion depends on Israel’s will­ing­ness and the sup­port it receives from Wash­ing­ton and Europe. Notably, Ozhan cau­tioned against a poten­tial “rip­ple effect” that could exac­er­bate the conflict. 

He sug­gest­ed that the wise choice would involve reestab­lish­ing a polit­i­cal con­text and lever­ag­ing the cur­rent cri­sis to cre­ate a mean­ing­ful polit­i­cal frame­work, with the caveat that its real­iza­tion depends on Israel’s stance and the engage­ment of cer­tain West­ern capitals.