After a week in which he repeatedly expressed his outrage against Israeli officials in the wake of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan now tells a U.S. magazine that Hamas terrorists are really politicians.
Erdogan was quoted in an article published online Saturday by Newsweek magazine as saying that Hamas is a political party, and not an "arm of Iran." The interview in its entirety will be available in the February 9 issue of the magazine.
The angry Turkish leader, who also said "Palestine today is an open-air prison," contended that "If the whole world had given [Hamas] the chance of becoming a political player maybe they would not be in a situation like this after the elections that they won."
Hamas won the Palestinian Authority legislative elections against the rival Fatah faction in a landslide victory in January 2006. The group includes in its charter a vow never to recognize the State of Israel's right to exist and has also rejected calls by the Quartet to renounce violence and uphold agreements negotiated by prior PA governments.
Meanwhile, the Damascus-based Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal led a delegation of six terrorists Sunday morning to meet in Tehran with Iran's supreme Spiritual Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, according to Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq. The group is also expected to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to the Reuters news agency.
Erdogan has harshly criticized Israel since Operation Cast Lead was initiated on December 27, 2008. The Turkish leader has said in previous interviews that he felt betrayed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, with whom he had conducted close negotiations while brokering indirect talks between Israel and Syria.
Last Thursday night, Erdogan stormed out of the World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland, after he debated with Israel's President Shimon Peres.
At the time, Peres has said that if rockets had struck Istanbul, Turkey would have responded, adding, "Do you understand the meaning of a situation where hundreds of rockets are falling a day on women and children who cannot sleep quietly, who need to sleep in shelters?... You don't understand, and I am not prepared for lies."
Erdogan responded by calling Israel's actions "very wrong" and "not humanitarian." He was silenced by a moderator, which led him to stomp out of the forum, saying, "Thank you very much. I don't think I will come back to Davos."