Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
A senior Hamas official, backed by Turkey’s Islamist government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has openly called on Turks to provide weapons and financial support for the group’s jihadist campaign and its ultimate goal of destroying Israel.
Marwan Muhammad Abu Ras, a high-ranking Hamas figure with significant influence in both the ideological and religious spheres of the organization, has spent considerable time in Turkey in recent months promoting the Hamas cause.
Turkish officials have welcomed him warmly, providing public platforms on state-controlled media to disseminate Hamas propaganda and helping him forge ties with government-aligned radical Islamist networks, including Turkish Hizbullah and the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İnsan Hak ve Hürriyetleri ve İnsani Yardım Vakfı, or IHH).
On April 20 Abu Ras appeared as the keynote speaker at a large rally held in Diyarbakır, a province with a predominantly Kurdish population in southeastern Turkey. Speaking to an energized crowd, he declared: “The Qassam Brigades are at the forefront of the war and the jihad. … You must support the Qassam Brigades — with your prayers, your wealth, your politics, your weapons, with everything you have, you must support the Qassam Brigades.”
The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, were responsible for the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israeli civilian and military targets, which resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and more than 250 kidnappings. The assault triggered extensive Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank, leading to the death of over 50,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Yet the loss of human life does not appear to trouble Hamas, which seems intent on capitalizing on the people’s suffering to sustain its militant organization — one that continues to receive backing from Turkey, Qatar and Iran.
Many Hamas leaders have settled in Turkey with their families, with some acquiring Turkish citizenship and passports while investing in property and running multi-million dollar businesses, particularly in real estate. They also actively participate in campaigns to raise funds for Hamas’s global network.
The event in Diyarbakır was one of many allowed to proceed under the Erdogan government. It was organized by Peygamber Sevdalıları Vakfı (Lovers of the Prophet Foundation), a front organization for Turkey’s Hizbullah — a group with a long history of extremism and a political alliance with Erdogan’s ruling party.
Despite being designated as a terrorist organization in Turkey, most of Hizbullah’s convicted members have been released from prison over the past decade, a development widely attributed to Erdogan’s ongoing political alliance with the group.
Abu Ras also participated in another rally on April 27 in Istanbul, once again organized by Hizbullah-affiliated groups. Sharing the stage with Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu, the leader of Hizbullah’s political wing, Hür Dava Partisi (Free Cause Party, or HÜDA-PAR), Abu Ras reiterated Hamas’s commitment to armed resistance. Yapıcıoğlu and Erdogan have frequently campaigned together, with HÜDA-PAR serving as part of Erdogan’s broader electoral coalition.
In an interview with Hizbullah media outlet İLKHA on April 24, Abu Ras predicted Israel’s eventual downfall, despite the ongoing challenges faced by Hamas. “We firmly believe that victory will come with God’s help. … Despite the betrayal of Arab states and the traps of America, this conspiracy is nearing its end. The end of Israel is near, God willing,” he said.
He also highlighted his long-standing personal connections to top Hamas leadership. Abu Ras has maintained close ties with iconic Hamas figures such as Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar. He first met Yassin, Hamas’s spiritual founder who was assassinated in March 2004, during his youth in the 1970s. He was active in the group’s early initiatives and was even present during a 2003 Israeli airstrike that narrowly missed killing Yassin at Abu Ras’s home.
He recounted how Haniyeh, who would go on to lead Hamas before being assassinated in 2024, was a student leader at the Islamic University of Gaza when Abu Ras returned there as a lecturer in 1986 after completing his studies in Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Abu Ras ran on Haniyeh’s electoral list in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections. Like Haniyeh, Sinwar — who succeeded him — was also one of Abu Ras’s students, with whom he remained in frequent contact, especially during Sinwar’s tenure running Hamas operations in Gaza.
Abu Ras currently heads the Palestinian Scholars Association in Gaza, an organization now expanding into Turkey through a series of conferences. The first event, held on April 12 in Istanbul under the title Birinci Türkiye Âlimler Konferansı (First Turkey Scholars Conference), was sponsored by Turkey’s state religious authority, the Diyanet. This influential institution, which manages a multi-billion dollar budget and oversees around 90,000 mosques both in Turkey and abroad, provides significant legitimacy and support to Hamas through its endorsement.
In addition to his religious roles, Abu Ras is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and chairs the Jerusalem and Palestine Committee of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, a global organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and founded in 2006 by the late Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent cleric deeply admired by President Erdogan.
Under the Erdogan government, Turkey has become a sanctuary for Hamas operatives, offering them state protection, logistical support and access to banking and financial systems that facilitate the transfer of funds. Many Hamas members have established business ventures in Turkey, particularly in the booming real estate sector, generating substantial revenue. Some have even acquired Turkish citizenship, often changing their names in the process, while others have been granted long-term residence permits to settle in the country.
President Erdogan has long championed Hamas, referring to its fighters as “resistance warriors” engaged in a legitimate struggle to liberate occupied land. He frequently hosts senior Hamas delegations at his presidential complex in Ankara, pledging continued support.
Erdogan has also labeled Israel as Turkey’s number one national security threat — a position unprecedented in the history of the Turkish Republic — and has gone so far as to claim that Hamas helps safeguard Turkish territorial integrity from an alleged Israeli conspiracy to annex parts of Turkey as part of a “Greater Israel” scheme.
In recent years the US Treasury has sanctioned several individuals and businesses in Turkey linked to Hamas’s financial network. A more recent crackdown targeted a Hamas-affiliated cryptocurrency operation in Turkey, marking the first action of its kind pursued by US authorities against Hamas financing on Turkish soil.
