Turkey's Erdogan meets Hamas leader Meshaal in Istanbul: sources

Reuters ^ | December 19th, 2015 | by Humeyra Pamuk

[Mariner]

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met with Khaled Meshaal, leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas, on Saturday in Istanbul, Turkish presidential sources said, a day after Israel and Turkey said they were close to patching up five-year political rift.

A source from Erdogan's office said Meshaal "briefed Erdogan on the latest developments in the region", without giving further details. Islamist Hamas controls the Gaza strip.

Israeli officials said late on Thursday that a deal with Turkey was struck to normalize ties following high-level bilateral talks in Switzerland.

Turkish officials said a final agreement was yet to be sealed, but that given the progress it would not be too long.

Israel's once-strong ties to Turkey soured in 2010 when Israeli commandoes killed 10 Turkish activists when storming the Mavi Marmara, a ship in a convoy seeking to break an Israeli naval blockade of the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

[Mariner]

Never doubt that Turkey under Erdogan is an an enemy of the US and a supporter of terrorism.

Hamas is aligned with ISIS.

[faithhopecharity]

Hamas and hezbellah and “pa/PLO” are all similar or same gangs of evil murderous terrorists as are Isis and Muslim brothers and al queida — turkey needs to be thrown the hell out of nato without further delay. Let the Russians deal with them if they wish

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Amen.

[Sacajaweau]

Erdogan’s son is even nutser.

[Graybeard58]

Istanbul. I’m old, I still call it Constantinople.

[DanielRedfoot]

Even old New York, was once New Amsterdam.

Why did the change it I can’t say...
Maybe they liked it better that way

[MrEdd]

Heh.
In my day it was Byzantium.

[Baynative]

Speaking at Kanal D TV's Arena program in 2007, Turkey's Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan commented on the term "moderate Islam", often used in the West and said;
"These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that's it."

(Source: Milliyet, Turkey, August 21, 2007)