On Aug. 22, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted two senior Hamas operatives in Istanbul. It was the second meeting Erdogan has had with Hamas leaders inside Turkey this year. The State Department protested. “Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S and EU and both officials hosted by President Erdogan are Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” its statement read. “The U.S. Rewards for Justice Program is seeking information about one of the individuals for his involvement in multiple terrorist attacks, hijackings, and kidnappings.”
While striking that the State Department has called out a nominal ally for turning a blind eye to terrorism if not supporting it, department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus’s statement is still restrained. After all, the problem is not simply that Erdogan indulges Hamas (he has done that openly since 2006), but rather that Erdogan again apparently allows Hamas to plan terror attacks from Turkish soil. Earlier this month, Erdogan gave Turkish passports to 12 senior Hamas terrorists, including one involved in a failed attempt to assassinate the mayor of Jerusalem. Earlier this month, Erdogan threatened to “liberate al Aqsa” and free Jerusalem from Israeli control. Greek authorities suggest that Erdogan himself ordered this month’s Hamas balloon bomb attacks from the Gaza Strip in order to precipitate further conflict with Israel against the backdrop of Israel’s peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates. That is textbook terror sponsorship. This is not old news but affirms 2015 reports that Erdogan had moved Hamas’s Damascus headquarters to Turkey.
Realists may argue that Erdogan’s hostility toward Israel should not be a U.S. concern. After all, the United States maintains relations with many countries — Pakistan, Malaysia, and Algeria, for example — that are hostile to the Jewish state. The problem is that Erdogan and his advisers also signal a willingness to attack Americans.
In 2011, for example, Erdogan adviser Egemen Bagis (speaking to a newspaper affiliated with Fethullah Gulen) warned maritime gas field companies (including American ones with whom the Cypriot government had contracted) that they might face the Turkish navy. “This is what we have the navy for. We have trained our marines for this; we have equipped the navy for this. All options are on the table; anything can be done,” he said. Erdogan subsequently appointed Bagis to be Turkey’s ambassador to the Czech Republic. Some apologists may say that U.S. partnership with Syrian Kurds betrayed Turkey and is the root of hostility, but Bagis’s threats show this explanation to be deceptive and anachronistic. Turkey has spied on dissidents in the U.S., and, of course, there was the attack in Sheridan Circle in the heart of Washington. It is probably only a matter of time until Turkish agents kill Turks or Americans on U.S. soil.
More recently, Erdogan aides have targeted Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden, who labeled Erdogan an “autocrat” in a January 2020 meeting with the Washington Post editorial board and called both for U.S. support for Turkey’s opposition politicians and efforts to mediate between Turks and Kurds. The Turkish reaction was furious. Erdogan spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, a former Georgetown University professor, tweeted, “The days of ordering Turkey around are over. But if you still think you can try, be our guest. You will pay the price.”
The analysis of Turkey by @JoeBiden is based on pure ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy.
The days of ordering Turkey around are over.
But if you still think you can try, be our guest.
You will pay the price.
— Ibrahim Kalin (@ikalin1) August 16, 2020
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Sudan, one of only four countries on the state sponsor of terrorism list. Since that country’s revolution ousted longtime President Omar al Bashir, a man wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and also a close Erdogan ally, Sudan worked to restore normal relations with the West and rejoin the community of nations. It no longer is a state sponsor of terror and deserves to be removed from the list of terror sponsors.
If that list is to mean anything, however, Turkey should replace Sudan. Terrorism designation should be objective; President Trump’s friendship with Erdogan should not be any consideration.
Hosting Hamas, directing attacks from Turkish soil, and threatening the U.S. and its citizens qualifies Turkey beyond any reasonable doubt. NATO membership was never meant to be a Get Out of Jail Free card for rogue behavior. Add Turkey’s ties to the Islamic State to the list, and the case is even stronger.
Turkey deserves designation no matter what, but if Trump loses the election, Pompeo can bolster U.S. interests and cement his own legacy by designating Turkey during his lame-duck period in order to allow Biden to escape the direct ramifications.
Biden can try soft diplomacy or his own version of “maximum pressure,” but if Turkish diplomats want to remove themselves from the list, there should be only one consideration: an end to Ankara’s relationship with terrorists and terror groups.
Michael Rubin (@Mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official.
