On September 21, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas phoned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and requested that Turkey send Turkish observers to monitor Palestinian elections, if and when they are held.
The phone call came as Turkey hosted a meeting between Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction and the Iran-backed Hamas movement. At the meeting, the Fatah and Hamas reportedly agreed to hold long overdue elections for the PA presidency and parliament, the Palestine Legislative Council (PLC).
Abbas’s request surprised many Palestinians and Arabs, especially in the wake of charges that Erdogan had forged the 2018 presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey. Shortly after the voting ended, thousands of Twitter users launched a hashtag called #Erdogan_forged_election, accusing him of rigging the elections.
This was not the first time that Erdogan has been accused of election fraud. In 2014, Turkey’s opposition accused Erdogan’s party of rigging the country’s local elections.
What we are witnessing is an Arab autocrat (Abbas) seeking the help of a Muslim autocrat (Erdogan) in holding “free and fair” elections. Abbas, it seems, is confident that Erdogan’s observers would rubber-stamp the results of any Palestinian election to ensure that the PA president emerges victorious.
The 85-year-old Abbas, currently in the 15th year of his four-year-term in office, appears to be an admirer of Erdogan’s authoritarian rule. While Erdogan is seeking to resurrect the Ottoman Empire and assume the role of Sultan (ruler of a Muslim realm), Abbas is searching for ways to hold onto power until his last day.
Erdogan apparently wants to expand his influence in the Middle East by meddling in the affairs of the Palestinians after already involving himself in conflicts in Libya and Syria. Now he has a chance to use the Palestinian elections to try to bring his Hamas friends to power after getting rid of Abbas.
Abbas, who has no intention of competing with Erdogan for the title of Sultan, wants to maintain his status as president-for-life of the Palestinians. Abbas is hoping that Erdogan will assist him in achieving his goal.
In January 2005, Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority. The next presidential election was supposed to take place in January 2009, but a dispute that erupted between Fatah and Hamas has so far prevented the Palestinians from holding presidential and parliamentary elections. The last Palestinian parliamentary election was held in January 2006, when Hamas won most of the Palestine Legislative Council seats.
A year later, Hamas staged a violent coup in the Gaza Strip, overthrowing Abbas’s PA and seizing full control of the coastal enclave, home to nearly two million Palestinians. Since then, the Palestinians have been left without a parliament due to the split between the PA-controlled West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Several attempts by Egypt and other Arab countries to resolve the Fatah-Hamas rift over the past 12 years have failed, leaving the Palestinians with two separate mini-states: one in the West Bank, the other in the Gaza Strip.
Abbas, in the past 11 years, has more than once expressed his desire to end the conflict with Hamas and pave the way for holding the long overdue elections. Such statements have often been ridiculed by his critics.
“Palestinian elections are merely a lie we’ve been hearing for years and never see happening on the ground,” noted several social media users on Twitter. One posted a video that included various statements by Abbas in which he talks about holding new elections.
Commenting on Abbas’s request that Turkey monitor the Palestinian elections, Egyptian social media user Ahmed Maka wrote:
“Did you know that the Palestinian Authority president called on Turkey to monitor the Palestinian elections, despite the fact that Turkey itself rigged the local elections [in Turkey], according to the testimony of international observers?”
Erdogan’s renewed interest in the Palestinian issue might be seen in the context of his embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates, including Hamas. If Erdogan is going to send Turkish observers to monitor the Palestinian elections, it is because he would like to help his friends in Hamas win the vote.
A report by the Century Foundation on the Turkish government’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood estimated that 20,000 Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members live on Turkish soil. Recently, another report revealed that Turkey has given passports to a dozen members of Hamas in Istanbul.
Erdogan evidently cares about Hamas more than Abbas does. The Turkish leader would certainly like to see Palestinians hold new elections — and he is prepared to provide all the help needed. By inviting Turkey to monitor the elections, Abbas is playing into the hands of Erdogan and Hamas. Abbas is advancing Turkey’s mission of replacing his regime with a Muslim Brotherhood-led government.
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