In recent years, Turkey has become one of the most vocal supporters of the Palestinian cause, trying to break the Gaza blockade with a flotilla, providing safe haven and funds to senior Hamas operatives, shrilly condemning the Jewish state, and eroding the longstanding and important Turkish-Israeli alliance. But, argues the Turkish journalist Burak Bekdil, President Erdogan rarely puts his country’s money where its mouth is. This is because, historically, the Turkish government has always cared much less about the Palestinian people than about the near-magical political value of the Palestinian cause:
“The Palestinian cause” is a unique charm that brings together Turks from different ideologies. Turkish Islamists view it as an indispensable part of “jihad”; the conservatives feel attached to it because it has a religious connotation; for the leftists it is part of an “anti-imperialist” struggle; the nationalists embrace it just because most Turks embrace it. In the 1970s, when a dozen Turks a day on average were being killed in street violence, the “Palestinian cause” was the only issue that otherwise warring fractions of the Turkish left, right, and Islamists could agree on.
Read more on Gatestone: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4785/turkey-loves-hamas