Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
The youth division of Palestinian militant organization Hamas, which faces allegations of training children in combat and the use of weapons, has been fostering stronger ties with Islamist and neo-nationalist youth groups in Turkey, facilitated by the pro-Hamas government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Since Hamas’s attacks on Israeli civilian and military targets in October, its operatives have been actively meeting with various Turkish groups that engage with Turkish youth, aiming to convert a significant number of young people in Turkey to Hamas’s ideology and to tap into additional resources to support Hamas’s regional operations.
The man tasked by Hamas to accomplish this is Ashraf Awad, described as the deputy head of Hamas’s youth office. He has been holding a series of meetings with leaders of Turkish militant and Islamist organizations to enlist as much support as possible and to promote Hamas’s youth projects.
Hamas is notorious for providing military training to children and youths, including both practical field training and theoretical instruction, particularly in summer camps organized by its youth branch. Over the years the Israeli army and intelligence services have revealed how Hamas uses minors for arms training in these camps, carrying ammunition and explosives concealed in groceries and exploiting them as couriers to send and receive messages.
The organizations Hamas interacts with in Turkey have youth branches across the country, engaging with young people and children. They indoctrinate them with militant, far-left or Islamist ideology through summer camps, publications and other activities.
One of the networks Awad interacts with is Öncü Gençlik (Pioneer Youth), a militant, far-right and neo-nationalist group that is the youth branch of the pro-Iran Perinçek group, which is allied with the government of President Erdogan. On June 27 Awad visited Samet Kunt, the head of Öncü Gençlik. The meeting was held in Istanbul, where Hamas has one of its most important command and coordination centers, protected by Turkish intelligence agency MIT.
According to the readout from the meeting published by Perinçek group mouthpiece the Aydınlık newspaper, the two discussed strategies to expand the anti-US and anti-Israel front globally. Kunt vowed to defeat the US-Israel alliance, remove Turkey from NATO and expel US troops from Turkish military bases.
Yunus Emre Özgün and Murat Katlanç, members of the Öncü Gençlik executive committee, boasted about their operations against US interests, stating that their sister organization, the Turkish Youth Union (Türkiye Gençlik Birliği, TGB), another youth group from the Perinçek faction, organized rallies in front of the US Embassy and military bases housing US troops in Turkey.
Members of the TGB are known for their violence and operate with impunity in Turkey. The organization has been implicated in attacks on NATO bases and US troops in the country, resulting in numerous criminal investigations, indictments and trials. Despite these legal challenges, they have consistently avoided the consequences due to the influence of their leader, Doğu Perinçek, and his close ties to President Erdogan.
Hamas has also engaged Turkey’s Hizbullah to advance its youth initiatives. This Turkish group, distinct from Lebanon’s Hezbollah but sharing a commitment to Israel’s destruction and backed by Iran, was approached by Awad. He met with senior officials from Hizbullah’s political wing, HÜDA-PAR, a fundamentalist party officially allied with President Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
On April 26 Awad and his associates met with HÜDA-PAR’s provincial chairman, Zeynul Abidin Gülsever, in Diyarbakır, a predominantly Kurdish city in Turkey’s southeast. Many members of Turkish Hizbullah were previously convicted for a series of murders in the 1990s and imprisoned. However, they were later released following an alliance struck with the Erdogan government in 2014.
Hizbullah’s supreme leader, Edip Gümüş, issued a religious edict on October 13, 2023, urging jihad against Israel: “Hurry to jihad. Come to jihad and come to salvation. Especially those of you who are neighbors and close to the lands of Palestine, do not leave our Gazan brothers alone. Render the borders meaningless, pour in and join your Palestinian jihadist brothers.”
Gümüş also emphasized that all Muslims worldwide must find a means to contribute to the jihadist cause. Gümüş, a 65-year-old Kurd, received training from Iranian intelligence and has forged an alliance with President Erdogan in the last decade. He has not only met with Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, but has also worked closely with Ali Akbar Velayati, Khamenei’s senior advisor.
“Fight shoulder-to-shoulder with the mujahideen against the Zionist enemy. Those who have no opportunity to fight, those in conditions that make it difficult to fight, should strive to create opportunities and conditions [for combat],” he added. “Be like the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and strike fear into their [Jews] hearts,” Gümüş said.
In response to his call, Hasan Saklanan, a 34-year-old radical Turkish imam employed by the government, attacked an Israeli border police officer with a knife in Jerusalem on April 30. He was killed at the scene. Two other Turkish nationals, Yakup Erdal and Seyfullah Bilal Öztürk, who had joined Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on November 21, 2023. All three were affiliated with Turkey’s Hizbullah network.
Another organization Hamas’s youth office interacts with in Turkey is the Önder İmam Hatipliler Derneği (Önder Imam Hatip Association, Önder), an Islamist group known for its strong support of the Erdogan government. On June 11 Awad met with Abdullah Ceylan, the president of Önder, to discuss expanding their collaborative youth programs.
Önder, organized among Turkey’s publicly funded 4,500 religious schools known as imam-hatip, has the capacity to mobilize 1.5 million students. Imam hatip schools cater to students from secondary to high school levels and are notably the alma mater of President Erdogan and his children. The association receives substantial support from the Erdogan government and serves as a pivotal platform for recruitment into government positions, facilitating the staffing of public institutions by Erdogan loyalists.
Another Turkish Islamist organization that Hamas’s youth office has developed close ties with is the Cihannüma Dayanışma ve İşbirliği Platformu Derneği (Cihannüma Association for Solidarity and Cooperation Platform), headquartered in Istanbul. Established by Islamists in 2013, its founding president, Yusuf Tekin, is a pro-Iran figure who currently serves as the minister of national education.
It serves as a pathway for young ideologues selected for government positions based on ideological zealotry rather than merit. Awad visited Cihannüma’s headquarters on May 4, where he met with its current leader, Rıza Yorulmaz, and his deputy, Yusuf Eren.
Other organizations enlisted as allies by Awad included YediHilal Derneği (Seven Crescent Association), an Islamist youth group with networks in schools from elementary to university, and Anadolu Gençlik Derneği (Anadolu Youth Association), the youth branch of the Islamist Saadet Party. Both organizations have significant youth followings in Turkey.
Awad’s youth operations add another dimension to the expanding Hamas influence in Turkey. Like Awad, numerous Hamas figures, including several senior leaders, reside and operate in Turkey under the protection and support of the Erdogan government. Turkish intelligence agency MIT even provides security details for certain Hamas leaders.
Israel’s efforts to monitor Hamas activity in Turkey have been met with Turkish authorities cracking down on Mossad assets and informants attempting to gather intelligence on the Hamas network, with Turkish intelligence and police taking a series of actions against them.
Despite facing sanctions from the US, Hamas front companies continue to operate and access the Turkish financial and banking systems unhindered. Some Hamas officials have even changed their names in Turkey after acquiring citizenship to obscure their identities.
