In 2011, Turkey secured the release of the new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar from an Israeli prison

Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm

Former Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that Turkey was instrumental in the release of new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar from an Israeli prison in 2011. Sinwar was serving a life sentence there after five years of negotiations between Hamas and Israel.

In an interview with a local Turkish television station on August 7, Davutoglu, who now leads the small Islamist Gelecek (Future) party, revealed that Israel was initially hesitant to release Sinwar and 10 other Hamas members during negotiations to free kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Davutoglu, who has been a staunch Hamas supporter for years, said he personally led the negotiations and secured Sinwar's release despite Israeli objections.

The agreement allowed for the release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit; some of the Hamas members subsequently settled in Turkey under the protection of the Turkish government.

“Among them were 11 people of particular importance. Initially, the Israeli authorities did not want to release them, but through the persistent efforts of Hamas, our intervention and pressure from the Israeli public, the exchange was made through our mediation in 2011,” said Davutoğlu.

Sinwar was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for the murder of twelve Palestinians, some of whom he brutally killed when they were suspected of collaborating with Israel.

He is notorious for his ruthlessness and violence, earning him the nickname “The Butcher of Khan Younis” after the southern Gaza neighborhood where he grew up. Israeli authorities believe he planned the October 7 attack last year that killed 1,200 Israeli civilians and military personnel and kidnapped 200 more.

Davutoğlu said Israel resisted demands for the release of Sinwar and other senior Hamas figures during negotiations between 2006 and 2011, but ultimately gave in to pressure exerted by him and his Turkish counterparts.

It was obvious that the deal would fail if Sinwar was not on the list of prisoners to be released. In an interview with Jewish Insider in May, Emi Palmor, then a member of the Israeli negotiating team, said: “I wouldn't say it was easy to release him. We knew, the Shin Bet knew, that he was dangerous.” She acknowledged, however, that there would have been no agreement to release Shalit if Sinwar had not been part of the deal.

“Shalit was kidnapped by Sinwar's brothers to free Sinwar,” she said. “The Palestinians gave all kinds of lists [of prisoners]and he was on all of them.”

Sinwar was not the only person whose release from an Israeli prison was secured by the Turkish foreign minister. Davutoğlu also boasted of facilitating the release of seven people Israel wanted to detain after the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010. The incident resulted in clashes that left eight Turks and one person with Turkish and American citizenship dead.

He said he exerted maximum pressure on James L. Jones, then the US national security adviser, to ensure that Israel released the seven people. They included Bülent Yıldırım, head of the Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH), a jihadist charity with links to the Turkish intelligence agency MIT.

IHH is also described as a logistics supplier to global armed jihadist networks, including al-Qaeda, and has been reported to be supplying aid and weapons to Islamist groups in Libya and Syria with the full support and knowledge of the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Davutoğlu and the Islamists of his former party, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), have formed close allies with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. They share a similar worldview and support these organizations politically, financially and logistically.

After the 2011 prisoner exchange, many Hamas members settled in Turkey, established branches and, in some cases, took Turkish citizenship, and raised money to support operations in Gaza.

For example, Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chairman of Hamas' political bureau, was among those released to Turkey. Al-Arouri conducted terrorist operations from Hamas offices in Istanbul, used Turkish financial and banking institutions to transfer money, and met frequently with Turkish politicians, including Hakan Fidan, then head of the MIT intelligence agency and current foreign minister.

Al-Arouri was killed on January 2, 2024, in an airstrike in Beirut believed to have been carried out by Israel.

Al-Arouri's boss, Ismail Haniyeh, also forged close ties with Turkish politicians, including Davutoğlu and President Erdogan, who supports Hamas over its rival Fatah. Haniyeh frequently visited Turkey and met with Erdogan and other politicians until he was assassinated in Iran on July 31, 2024. Erdogan declared a day of national mourning for Haniyeh, flew flags at half-mast, and sent his deputy to Qatar for Haniyeh's funeral.

President Erdogan called Hamas “resistance fighters” and compared it to the Kuvay-i Milliye (Turkish National Forces), an irregular militia that played a key role in Turkey’s war of independence after World War I.

“I say it here very clearly and distinctly. During the national struggle [for independence] What Kuvay-i Milliye was for Turkey, Hamas is exactly the same for Turkey. We are of course aware that we have to pay a price for such statements. We know that it is difficult to tell the truth at such a time. But the whole world should know and understand this,” Erdogan said on April 17.

Erdogan even went so far as to threaten Israel with military action on behalf of Hamas. On July 31, he told a party meeting in his hometown of Rize: “Just as we invaded Karabakh, just as we invaded Libya, we should do the same with Israel. Nothing is stopping us. We just have to be strong enough to take this step.”

Turkey sent weapons, troops and officers to Libya to support pro-Turkish factions and did the same for Azerbaijan in the conflict with Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.