President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday strongly condemned the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, calling it “perfidious” and sending his condolences to Palestine and Haniyeh’s family.
“This assassination aims to undermine the noble resistance of Gaza and the righteous struggle of Palestinians,” Erdoğan said in a statement on X, recalling similar attacks on several other Palestinian politicians like Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, both co-founders of Hamas.
Haniyeh was killed on Wednesday in an Israeli strike in Iran, the Palestinian resistance group said, in an act that has stunned the international community. Israel has not commented on the death but many countries have warned that it will have a major impact on efforts to bring a cease-fire in the Gaza war.
Ankara, which maintains good relations with Hamas, in a statement accused Israel of wanting to expand the war in Gaza to the entire region. Erdoğan met Haniyeh in Istanbul as recently as April.
He said a “stronger” stance by the Muslim world and humanity’s alliance would end Israel’s “tyranny and genocide in Gaza and terrorism in our region.”
“Türkiye will continue trying every route, pushing every door and supporting Palestinians with all our means,” Erdoğan added, reiterating Ankara’s commitment to a sovereign and independent Palestinian state with 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital.
