AHI Advocacy Results in Upcoming Congressional Request for Briefing on Turkish Support of Hamas, Including In Occupied Area of the Republic of Cyprus
No. 103
WASHINGTON, DC - On Thursday, November 21, 2024, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), and other Members of Congress will send a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines urgently requesting a classified briefing on Turkey’s support of Hamas. This will come following sustained advocacy from the American Hellenic Institute urging Congress to take further action to hold Turkey accountable for their involvement with U.S. designated terrorist organizations.
The letter will come following recent reports that senior members of Hamas’s leadership have relocated from Qatar to Turkey with the intent of establishing a headquarters there. This relocation is only the latest development in the longstanding support Turkey has given Hamas. Following the deadly attack on Israel in October, 2023, 47 Members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary Blinken urging him to address Turkey’s support for Hamas. Earlier this year, another letter was sent to Secretary Blinken on the topic and a resolution was introduced which calls for Congress to condemn the pro-Hamas rhetoric of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The request for a classified briefing will also specifically ask for information on the extent that Turkey’s support for Hamas extends to their presence in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus. Previously, the Republic of Cyprus and Israel worked together to apprehend other Iran-backed terrorist groups operating in the occupied area, with Mossad warning that “the prior and current use of that area for terrorist purposes and as an area of activity and transit to attack Israeli and Jewish targets, constitutes a disturbing issue.” The Israeli Prime Minister’s office also stated that the occupied area was being used "both for terrorism objectives and as an operational and transit area."
This summer, another Iran-backed terrorist organization, Hezbollah, explicitly threatened to attack the Republic of Cyprus.
The potential of Hamas crossing the U.N. buffer zone in the Republic of Cyprus poses a direct risk to the U.S. and its Allies, as the Republic of Cyprus acts as a central evacuation point for U.S. citizens. Furthermore, in addition to two U.K. military bases being located on the island and France operating out of the Republic of Cyprus, the United States, along with Germany and the Netherlands, have recently deployed troops to the island.
Reporting on Turkish support for U.S. designated terrorist organizations has also been covered by other Washington think tanks and research institutions, such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. AJC, JINSA, and other advocacy organizations, have already supported the upcoming letter requesting a classified briefing on the topic.
The American Hellenic Institute is an independent non-profit U.S. public policy center and think tank that works to strengthen U.S. relations with Greece and the Republic of Cyprus, and promote issues important to the Greek American community.
For additional information, please contact us at (202) 785-8430 or pr@ahiworld.org. For general information about the activities of AHI, please see our website at http://www.ahiworld.org.