Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer stressed Turkey’s crucial role in the ongoing crisis between Hamas and Israel during Tuesday’s state visit, urging Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to use his influence on Hamas to secure the release of hostages.
While Nehammer had long planned his state visit to Turkey to revive strained relations, it was overshadowed by the armed conflict between Hamas and Israel, which flared up again over the weekend. Nehammer urged his Turkish counterpart to push for the release of the 150 hostages that Hamas took during their attack.
“Turkey is a strong military power in the region; it knows many players, and President Erdogan is therefore also an important player when it comes to exerting influence on Hamas so that the hostages are spared,” Nehammer told broadcaster Puls4.
Erdogan has been a long-standing advocate of the Palestinian people and has supported a two-state solution in the region. However, Turkey recently also rekindled its relationship with Israel and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly a couple of weeks ago.
While Turkey does not describe Hamas as a terrorist organisation like the EU and the US, several Hamas officials have reportedly been expelled from Turkey in recent months.
On Monday, Erdoğan offered to mediate the conflict and broker a prisoner swap deal, saying a “just peace” would have “no losers”.
Austria, however, was one of the first countries to condemn the Hamas attack and announced on Monday that it would cut all development aid to Palestine because of the attacks. Nehammer called Egyptian President Abdelfattah al-Sisi on Monday for the same reasons, asking him to pressure Hamas to release the hostages.
(Oliver Noyan | Euractiv.de)
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