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Istanbul, Turkey – The battle on Gaza has seen Turkey step ahead as a possible mediator to not solely finish Israel’s bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, but in addition deliver lasting peace to one of many world’s most intractable conflicts.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led his nation’s bid, eager to advertise Turkey as a world participant and replicate Ankara’s success in mediating between Ukraine and its invader, Russia, to strike a deal for Kyiv to export grain.
Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory air raids on Gaza – which have but to finish – got here as Ankara and Tel Aviv have been fostering hotter ties after greater than a decade of hostility.
Ties to each side
Turkey has relations with Hamas, making it one of many few international locations with any affect with the group that has dominated Gaza since 2007.
Ankara didn’t declare Hamas a “terrorist organisation”, main Tel Aviv to protest that Turkey-based Hamas members have been concerned in planning assaults on Israel.
“Turkey has a very good communication channel with Hamas, which is a crucial asset,” Taha Ozhan, analysis director on the Ankara Institute, stated. “It has been constructed up over 17 years, when Turkey was the one nation to invite Hamas into [its capital].
“In these instances of disaster, the communication channels and relations are vital,” stated Ozhan, a former chair of the Turkish parliament’s international affairs committee.
Turkish officers – led by Erdogan and his international minister, Hakan Fidan – have acted on this benefit, seeing a central position for Ankara in resolving the newest Gaza battle.
Their speedy focus has been on getting humanitarian help to civilians in Gaza and searching for the discharge of some 200 hostages taken by Hamas.
Talking in Beirut on Tuesday, Fidan stated “a wide range of international locations” had requested Turkey for assist in releasing their residents.
“We have now began discussing … with the political part of Hamas,” he stated. “We’ve been placing a whole lot of effort to guarantee that youngsters and foreigners particularly are launched.”
Help for Palestine
There may be broad public help in Turkey for the Palestinian trigger, with pro-Palestine demonstrations drawing hundreds of Turks in current days.
On the similar time, Turkey had relations with Israel for a lot of Israel’s historical past, till issues hit a tough patch in 2010.
That yr, Israel killed 9 Turks who have been on board a Freedom Flotilla making an attempt to ship humanitarian help to a besieged Gaza Strip, with a tenth dying after years in a coma. Relations have been restored in 2016, solely to crumble once more in 2018.
That yr, Israel handed a legislation declaring itself the “nation-state of the Jewish folks”, drawing criticism from Erdogan. Then the US moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and Israel killed tens of protesters collaborating within the Nice March of Return in Gaza.
This has resulted in Erdogan being held in excessive regard by Palestinians.
“Erdogan stays lionised in Gaza, the West Financial institution, and throughout a lot of the Arab world, resulting from his historical past of utilizing harsh rhetoric to assault Israel’s insurance policies in the direction of the Palestinians,” stated Wolfango Piccoli, co-president at political threat advisory group Teneo.
This lionisation survived when Turkey modified gears final yr and began a regional rapprochement drive that noticed it rebuilding bridges with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE – and Israel.
‘New methodologies’
Fidan has been assembly leaders throughout the area, and held telephone calls with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
Ankara, he stated, is searching for to “open the door for a everlasting and complete peace” primarily based on a two-state resolution, and prompt Turkey may act as a guarantor.
“We don’t consider there might be a everlasting resolution through the use of the outdated methodologies, so hopefully within the upcoming conferences we are going to proceed to specific our concepts on using new methodologies,” he stated in a joint information convention together with his Lebanese counterpart on Tuesday.
Ozhan says Turkey could also be finest positioned to place ahead a political framework that permits discussions on the way forward for Palestinians. “Except we ask that query, all the things might be momentary and even arbitrary,” he stated.
Ferhat Pirincci, worldwide relations professor at Turkey’s Bursa Uludag College, stated: “What Turkey has advocated from the very starting is that many issues, particularly frozen conflicts, could be resolved peacefully and due to this fact a sustainable peace could be established.”
However Turkey’s efforts at a long-lasting resolution might be thwarted with out significant engagement from each side.
“With out speaking about occupation, with out speaking about Palestine and Palestinians’ state of affairs, there’s no room to maneuver, it’s simply speak,” Ozhan stated.
“It relies on if Israel – and the help it has coming from Washington and Europe – are actually thinking about mediation.”
Warning of a “ripple impact” that would develop the battle, he added: “The smart alternative ought to be re-establishing a political context and utilizing this disaster as a leverage to create a political framework. Nevertheless it relies on Israel and it relies on some Western capitals.”
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