Israel's demands for Hamas and the Israeli minister's statement on Turkey's participation in the East Med gas pipeline are signs of rapprochement between Tel Aviv and Ankara.
Turkey has been granting long-term visas and Turkish citizenship to some key Hamas members, but the situation has begun to change in recent weeks.
The Turkish government is restricting Hamas operations, with its members no longer having access to these strategic facilities. In at least one case, a Hamas member was arrested at Constantinople (Istanbul) airport and was deported.
The AKP, which embraces the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, has supported Hamas and has been a key supporter of the Palestinian terrorist organization for a few years now. The Palestinian group has reportedly been using Istanbul as a base for covert operations, including cyber-attacks in other countries.
New details have emerged in its activities, including the emphasis on recruiting Palestinian students studying engineering and medicine abroad for illegal terrorist operations, as Erdogan seeks to reconnect with his country's old allies, including Israel.
"We have a bargaining chip of interest to Turks and Israelis centered on Hamas, which has been going on for some time", the sources said.
Publicly, Erdogan insists that Turkey continues to support the Palestinians against Israel, but the fact that Hamas appears to have gone overboard without his approval has given him the excuse to start restricting the group's activities.
The Turkish investigation, combined with intelligence gathering from other countries, revealed a web of terrorist organizations used by the Turks to do their "dirty work" under the guise of Muslim student-backed charities.
The main goal of one of Hamas' secret units is to recruit Palestinians studying engineering and medicine abroad. One such student was Ahmed Sidar, 28, who was recruited in Istanbul in 2018 by two members of Hamas.
Sindar agreed to work for Hamas and received training in a safe area. When he returned to the West Bank, armed with just a smartphone, he was asked to start recruiting his own network, but was arrested by the Israeli secret service and is now being held at the Ofer military prison near Ramallah.
The al-Raed unit is led by Samekh Saraj, a senior member of the Hamas leadership in Gaza, and its direct commander is Maher Salakh, who travels between Istanbul and Beirut on a Turkish visa.
Foreign intelligence surveillance in Constantinople has revealed that Hamas has offices in the Başakşehir area on the European side of the city. It hosts organizations such as the World Coalition for Aid to Palestine and Jerusalem, the Palestine Elders Association, the Raya Institute and the White Hands Association, which are terrorist organizations and branches of Hamas.
Officially, they are charitable groups that support students. Al-Raed officials use several restaurants in the area, including one under Fatih Terim Stadium.
Last month, Erdogan told reporters in Ankara that "we are interested in improving our relations with Israel." The two countries were once strategic allies. Israeli officials have said in recent weeks that the key to improving ties between Jerusalem and Ankara is for Turkey to relinquish its support for Hamas.
So everything depicts that Erdogan is doing his best to become an ally of Tel Aviv and save himself from US sanctions, to the detriment of Greece.
