In contrast to Erdogan, the Mayor of Istanbul calls Hamas a terrorist group

GAZA – Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said Hamas should be considered a “terrorist group” because of its attack on Israel on October 7. This view is in sharp contrast to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“Of course Hamas carried out attacks in Israel which we deeply regret,” Imamoglu told CNN. “In our eyes, any organization that carries out terrorist acts and kills people en masse is a terrorist organization.”

Erdogan’s recent stance has linked Hamas to the Turkish revolutionary forces of the 1920s. Erdogan also hosted Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh this month and reiterated Turkey’s support for Palestine and sanctions against Israel.

“Unfortunately, the same thing is happening to innocent Palestinians in Israel today,” Imamoglu added. “I demand that these two issues be evaluated in this context and that the brutal oppression of Palestinians be stopped immediately.”

“We interpret the Hamas attack as a bad attack, and the situation is very bad, as a terrorist attack. But we also represent an understanding that opposes the oppression of Palestinians and the killing of women and children,” Imamoglu told CNN.

Considered a possible presidential candidate in the 2028 elections, the Istanbul mayor’s comments stand in stark contrast to Erdogan’s sharp criticism of Israel as the country battles Hamas, which the president – ​​himself a former mayor of Istanbul – has openly supported. In December, Erdogan said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “worse than Hitler” because of the way he conducted “terrorist state” Israel’s war on Gaza.

Imamoglu’s re-election in March marked the worst defeat for Erdogan and his Islamist-oriented Justice and Development Party (AKP) in their more than two decades in power. Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) won 36 of Turkey’s 81 provinces – including retaining the mayoralty of the capital, Ankara, by a stunning 25-point margin.

Although the explosion ostensibly signaled a change in the country’s divided political landscape, experts largely agree that Turkey’s economic woes caused voters to punish the AKP, not their opinion of Israel, despite claims by Foreign Minister Israel Katz to the contrary.

Ozgur Ozel, the CHP leader in Turkey’s parliament, said ahead of municipal elections that he would not hesitate to nominate Imamoglu as the party’s presidential candidate in the next general election in 2028, which Erdogan has said he will not run.

The war in Gaza erupted following the Hamas massacre on October 7, which saw around 3,000 fighters storm the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing around 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 34,000 people in the Gaza Strip have died in fighting so far, a figure that cannot be independently verified and includes about 13,000 armed Hamas members who Israel says have died in fighting. Israel also said it killed around 1,000 terrorists in Israel on October 7.

(ahm)