Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s chief foreign policy and security adviser has said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh “might have been” in Turkey on October 7, when Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel, defending Ankara’s decision to host senior Hamas figures.
In an interview with CNN International broadcast on Thursday, Akif Çağatay Kılıç said he didn’t know if Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, was in Turkey on October 7, but conceded “he might have been.”
In late October two sources had told Al-Monitor that Haniyeh, who was in Turkey on October 7, was politely sent away after footage circulated on social media showing him and other Hamas members prostrating themselves in a “prayer of gratitude” while watching news of the incursion on television.
The sources said Ankara requested Haniyeh and his entourage leave Turkey, unwilling to appear to be still protecting Hamas after the group’s killing of at least 1,200 civilians in Israel.
Erdoğan’s communications directorate denied the claim.
Kılıç said Turkey is engaging with Hamas “to bring about peace,” defending Turkey’s longstanding ties with Hamas, which many countries consider to be a terrorist group. Turkey does not.
“The issue is not where [Hamas members] are at what time, the issue is how can we resolve the conflict that we’re having, the war that we’re having right now,” he said.
“We’re talking on this issue in light of today’s events, but the reality is that in the past for example, the Israeli government itself asked us… more than 10 years ago, to engage with Hamas, to work with them.”
Kılıç also warned Israel against following through on its domestic security service’s vow to assassinate Hamas leaders abroad.
He said any Israeli assassination attempt on Turkish soil would be “unacceptable on any terms.” Unnamed Turkish officials had previously warned Israel that there would be “serious consequences.”
Erdoğan also warned last week that Israel would pay a “heavy price” if it attempts to assassinate members of Hamas living in Turkey.
Erdoğan has been among the world’s most outspoken leaders since the war began. He has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “the butcher of Gaza” and said he will be tried in international court as a war criminal.
Israel has retaliated against Hamas’s October 7 attack by pounding Gaza, leading to more than 18,500 casualties so far and causing devastation in the enclave.
