Abbas visit to Turkish parliament linked to several geopolitical dynamics

ANKARA: After meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Mahmoud Abbas visited Ankara and gave key messages about efforts for Palestinian unity and a ceasefire at a tense time during the Israel-Hamas war.

Abbas heads the Fatah Palestinian movement, a rival to Hamas, and has a more distant relationship with the Turkish government.

However, Turkiye’s invitation to Abbas was strategic as it came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress on July 25, which Ankara condemned.

“We will show that Mr. Abbas has the right to speak in our parliament, just as Netanyahu has the right to speak in the US Congress,” Erdogan told members of his ruling Justice and Development Party on Wednesday, before meeting Abbas in Ankara on Wednesday.

A staunch supporter of Hamas, President Erdogan said that Turkiye had also planned to invite Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh before he was assassinated in Tehran. 

Abbas was addressing an extraordinary session of the Turkish parliament on Thursday, decorated with photographs of Haniyeh, who frequently visited Turkiye and had close ties with Erdogan.

The parliament’s presidency said that the special session for Abbas aimed to “demonstrate strong support for the Palestinian people and their cause and ensure that the voice of the oppressed Palestinian people is heard worldwide.” 

During his speech, which was interrupted several times by applause, Abbas — based in Ramallah in the West Bank — said that he would visit the besieged Gaza Strip to protest Israel’s war on the enclave, adding that the conflict could not end until Israel withdrew from occupied Palestinian land.

Abbas has not gone to Gaza since Hamas took power in 2007.

He also said that he would stand by the Palestinian people “even at the cost of his life” and added: “There cannot be a Palestinian state without Gaza.”

The last time Abbas visited Turkiye was on March 5.

But this time the visit coincides with a tense geopolitical situation and speculation about retaliation against Israel by Iran and Hezbollah.

Ankara, meanwhile, is also grappling with its position on Hamas following the appointment of Yahya Sinwar, who is seen as closer to Iran, after Haniyeh’s assassination.

Turkiye recently imposed a temporary one-week block on Instagram after the social media platform blocked condolence posts on the killing of Haniyeh.

Betul Dogan-Akkas, assistant professor of international relations at Ankara University’s department of international relations, believes that Abbas’s visit to the Turkish parliament is linked to several dynamics in regional and global politics.

“Turkiye is known for its social and political support for the Palestinian cause, but in the last decade it has become more and more involved with Hamas,” she told Arab News.

“However, Ankara’s support for Palestine goes beyond its ties with Hamas or Fatah,” Dogan-Akkas said.

“Inviting Abbas to deliver a speech in parliament shows Turkiye’s current efforts to adopt a comprehensive approach to the resistance without differentiating between the West Bank and Gaza.”

Dogan-Akkas believes that the visit was also significant for Middle East politics in the wake of Haniyeh’s assassination.

“Abbas can speak safely in Turkiye, and Turkiye is happy to host him to pave the way for the unification of the Palestinian resistance,” she said.

He had also dedicated an important part of his speech to the resistance in Gaza. “Having the opportunity to speak on behalf of Palestine, his discourse was inclusive and representative of both the West Bank and Gaza, despite the ongoing fragility of Palestinian domestic politics.”

Abbas “is an important figure in the Middle East, and hosting him in the Turkish parliament means that Turkiye is keeping channels of communication open with various powers in the Middle East, especially in Palestine,” Dogan-Akkas said.

“However, his visit is more oriented to the international community as Turkiye has recently submitted a request to join South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide,” she said.

Galip Dalay, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, thinks that the significance of the visit is largely symbolic.

“Politically, the Palestinian Authority, despite its international legitimacy, has no influence in Gaza and limited one in West Bank, where its popularity is quite low,” he told Arab News.

“Turkiye’s most important role in the Palestinian cause at present lies in its ability to promote a common framework of governance and leadership within Palestine, contributing to the creation of a reformed and unified Palestinian leadership,” Dalay said.

“This includes restructuring the Palestine Liberation Organization to ensure broader representation of all Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah elements. In addition, Turkiye envisages the emergence of a new government that is not linked to any existing organization.”

According to Dalay, this approach also applies to Turkiye’s relationship with Fatah and aims to contribute to the internal Palestinian dialogue.

“Turkiye is trying to internationalize the Palestinian issue by involving Arab and non-Arab, Western and non-Western actors as well as international institutions,” he said. 

Many experts believe that Turkiye’s increased engagement with the Palestinian issue is for domestic consumption, as one of the ruling government’s rivals, the New Welfare Party, with a strong Islamist tendency, has criticized Ankara for not being active enough on the Palestinian issue, creating significant domestic pressure on the issue.

Mehmet Akif Koc, a researcher on Middle East politics, considers Abbas’s visit to Turkiye significant for three main reasons.

“His stop in Ankara after Beijing and Moscow underscores Turkiye’s role in global diplomacy,” he told Arab News.

The visit comes as Turkiye “seeks to normalize relations with Syria and increase its influence in Iraq, positioning itself to take more initiative in the Middle East,” Koc said.

According to Koc, in the aftermath of the Gaza massacre on Oct. 7 and Haniyeh’s assassination, Turkish public opinion has leaned strongly toward Hamas.

“For the flexibility and maneuverability capacity of Turkish foreign policy, balancing the Fatah aspect is important, particularly from a state perspective,” he said.

Koc said that the visit helped to balance the pressure on Mahmoud Abbas from Israel and encouraged a more supportive approach to Gaza and Hamas under difficult conditions.

Abbas “had not indicated plans to visit Gaza for the last 11 months since the beginning of the massacre, and it is evident that he chose Ankara as the place to announce this.

“It is not difficult to speculate that Ankara may have pressured Abbas for this significant move, making this visit a crucial step toward fostering Palestinian unity,” he said.