Just as with the al-Qaeda-trained dictator massacring his own people in Syria, or Hamas-sponsoring and Tehran-loving Qatari royals, American leaders want to believe Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a U.S.-friendly moderate. (As if any moderate leader exists in the Islamic Middle East) But there’s a reason Erdoğan habitually defends terrorists — he’s on their side.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry released new information Monday on how Hamas terrorists don’t just operate in Gaza and certain parts of Israel, nor even simply in Qatar, but also in Turkey:
Hamas terrorists based in Turkey are directing attacks against Israelis, funding terrorism, and recruiting operatives.
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) June 22, 2026
The network is exposed. The facts are clear. pic.twitter.com/fM7XGS7uip
The Turkish government has long been living off the reputation of the Atatürk era, even though Erdoğan has specifically reversed many of the measures that Atatürk took to Westernize and secularize the Muslim nation. The idea that Erdoğan is anything but a radical Islamist who wants to see sharia take over the world is wishful thinking, not based in reality.
Following the massacre that Hamas committed in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the worst slaughter of Jews in a single day since the Nazi Holocaust, Erdoğan openly defended Hamas. “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a liberation group, mujahideen waging a battle to protect its lands and people,” Erdoğan asserted.
As a matter of fact, the so-called Palestinians, a conglomerate of Muslims from other countries who moved into the area almost entirely within the last century, have no right to the land that God gave the Israelites thousands of years ago (see Genesis 17:8). Nor can we possibly call Hamas, whose members torture, rape, and murder Israelis of all ages in the most heinous and bestial fashions, anything but terrorist. But the above comment was typical rhetoric from the Turkish dictator. Another politician from his party declared the Holocaust was “unfinished” and expressed his admiration for Hitler.
Related: Senator, War Scholar Confirm Israeli Aid to Lebanese Civilians — Especially Christians
The October 2023 defense of Hamas was not a one-time move for Erdoğan. In May 2024, for instance, he falsely claimed that Hamas aimed at a "permanent ceasefire" and that the Israeli government was "fascis[t]" and deliberately blocking peace. The Turkish dictator used Hamas-issued, totally unreliable casualty numbers to accuse Israel of turning Gaza into a "concentration camp" akin to Nazi death camps.
At the 80th United Nations General Assembly in late 2025, just before Hamas began reasserting its control by a reign of terror in parts of Gaza that Israel evacuated, Erdoğan told the press, "I see Hamas as a resistance organization. There is no other way to explain the massacre in Gaza — it is a genocide. The perpetrator of this genocide is [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu." Experts have repeatedly debunked the "genocide" lie.
Erdoğan is also a loyal backer of Syria's murderous terrorist dictator al-Sharaa and of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. Furthermore, Erdoğan extravagantly mourned the elimination of the mass-murdering Iranian dictator Ayatollah Khamenei. The American government has touted Turkey's cooperation in targeting ISIS, but Westerners always forget that Islamic terror factions fight each other when they're not killing Jews and Christians. Erdoğan, like al-Sharaa, temporarily opposes ISIS for territorial rivalry reasons rather than because he condemns jihad (though the Turkish government has helped ISIS in the recent past).
It is no surprise that there are Hamas leaders operating in Turkey. The frustrating part is that the West remains so willfully blind to the realities of Erdoğan's regime.
