One of Turkey’s former Prime Ministers, Mesut Yılmaz, visited Israel in 1998. During this visit, he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-President Weizman, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. There was another individual present during these meetings: Fevzi İsbasaran. İsbasaran had previously served as an advisor to Prime Minister Turgut Özal and held various positions, including Chief of Staff, in the Prime Minister’s Office. He was also a member of the Turkish Parliament in the 19th and 23rd terms.
Years later, during these meetings, İsbasaran disclosed Israel’s strategic vision of supporting and empowering Hamas, an organization considered a terrorist group. İsbasaran’s statements, made through his social media account, revealed the following:
“Upon Netanyahu’s invitation, we traveled to Israel. It was during the tenure of the late Mesut Yılmaz as Prime Minister, and Netanyahu had been Prime Minister for one year.
The first day involved official meetings, but the content of the discussions was empty, focusing on cooperation and goodwill.
After the meetings, we traveled to Ramallah, where we met with the late Yasser Arafat, with Mahmoud Abbas also present.
Yasser Arafat explained that Israel had returned Gaza to Palestine, but the region was in a dire state. He mentioned that Israel, the United States, Europe, and Turkey had stopped or delayed the aid funds they had sent (the aid was deposited in a bank account in Israel).
Netanyahu seemed curious about our meeting with Yasser Arafat and invited Mesut Yılmaz to his home for dinner. We went to Netanyahu’s home.
During the dinner, Mesut Yılmaz conveyed the difficulties faced by Yasser Arafat and proposed Turkey’s assistance in addressing Gaza’s infrastructure and housing problems, pending permission.
Netanyahu: I don’t know if there’s a problem with the disbursement of aid funds. I will look into it. However, Hamas also has bank accounts for aid in our banks, and we support them. You can contribute as well.
Mesut Yılmaz: Our counterpart as Turkey, like the United States and European countries, is the State of Palestine and the administration of Yasser Arafat. We cannot provide assistance to organizations.
Netanyahu: The previous Prime Minister before you (Necmettin Erbakan) and his party were in talks with Hamas, and there was no issue.
Mesut Yılmaz: Mr. Erbakan and his party were not conducting official negotiations on behalf of the state; they were engaging as a political party. Our state policy has remained consistent for years: we officially recognize and negotiate with the State of Palestine and the administration of Yasser Arafat. Besides, every political party in Turkey has its own views on organizations in Palestine.
Netanyahu insisted on establishing contact with Hamas, but Mesut Yılmaz declined.
The next day, Israeli President Weizman invited Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz for breakfast at his home. President Weizman accused Netanyahu of undermining the peace process.
Mesut Yılmaz, smiling, responded: “I did not come here to mediate between the President of Israel and the Prime Minister. I came to contribute to the peace process in the Middle East.” To this, President Weizman also laughed.
The minutes of these meetings are available at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” Netanyahu told his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. “This is part of our strategy.”
Source: politurco.com
