A Union of Good website is reporting that Turkish Prime Minister Receb Tayyip Erdogan has sent a letter to the Hamas Prime Minister inviting him to visit Turkey and pledging $300 million to the Hamas government. According to the report:
2011-12-03 Turkish sources reported that Turkish Prime Minister, Receb Tayyip Erdogan, sent a confidential letter to Ismail Haniyya, Prime Minister of the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip, inviting him to visit Turkey, and informing him that he decided to grant the government $300 Million. The urgent aid to the Authority in Gaza comes due to the serious financial crisis the Hamas-led government is facing. Hamas sources said that Erdogan positively responded to a statement by Hamas Political Bureau Chief, Khaled Mashal, who called for boosting the relations between Hamas and Turkey. Erdogan instructed the Ministry of Finance to allocate $300 million to be sent to Hamas’ government in Gaza. On his part, Mashal stated that financial support to Hamas witnessed a sharp decrease recently, adding that the Turkish donation will help cover some of the budget for the coming year as the government’s balance for this year is estimated by $540 Million. Turkish media sources reported that the sharp Turkish criticism against the Syrian regime for the brutal crackdown targeting the revolution against President Bashar Asad, pushed Mashal to delay the visit of Haniyya to Ankara. The Hamas movement has its offices in Syria and refrains from making statement regarding the situation there.
The Hamas charter states that it is ” is one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine” and an early media report indicated that shortly after Hamas took over the Gaza strip, Muslim Brotherhood representatives were present to review Hamas military formations. In 2007, a Hamas journalist acknowledged the role that the “international Muslim Brotherhood” has played in providing funds for the purchase of weapons and in 2008, an Israeli TV station reported that Muslim Brotherhood “representatives” had traveled to Gaza from Egypt through the open border to meet with Hamas. Hamas is supported financially and politically by the global Muslim Brotherhood and a NEFA Foundation report has documented the Hamas fund-raising activities of the Union of Good, a coalition of Islamic charities linked to the Brotherhood that provides financial support to both the Hamas “social” infrastructure, as well as its terrorist activities. Previous posts have also discussed the worldwide campaign orchestrated by the global Brotherhood against Israeli actions in Gaza during the 2008-2009 conflict with Israel. Anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement in Hamas media is commonly reported.
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) has published a report on the June 2010 Gaza flotilla titled “Turkey, the Global Muslim Brotherhood, and the Gaza Flotilla” whose abstract states:
There is strong evidence for Turkish governmental involvement in the Gaza flotilla incident, with Turkish government support channeled through the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood network. Since 2006, Turkey has become a new center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood. The IHH was not acting alone but rather was an integral part of a Turkish Muslim Brotherhood network.
With respect to the Global Muslim Brotherhood, report’s second conclusion states:
The Gaza flotilla incident brought into sharp focus an even more significant long- term development: the growing relationship between the Erdogan government and the Global Muslim Brotherhood, which has given rise to some of the most notorious Islamist terrorist groups – from al-Qaeda to Hamas. Since 2006, Turkey has become a new center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood, while the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip acted as the main axis for this activity.
Read the rest here.