Mahmoud Abbas says he will visit Gaza in address to Turkish Parliament

Palestinian leader calls on international community to increase ceasefire efforts

Mahmoud Abbas addressing the Turkish Parliament in Ankara on Thursday. EPA

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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told Turkey’s Parliament on Thursday he would try to arrange a ceasefire in a trip to Gaza, where the death toll has now exceeded 40,000.

Wearing a scarf bearing the Palestinian and Turkish flags, Palestinian Authority President Mr Abbas was addressing Turkish MPs after talks yesterday with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who also attended Thursday's speech.

“I, with the Palestinian leaders, have decided to travel to Gaza, and I will work with all my capacity and people to end this aggression, even if my life is at risk,” the Palestinian President said in an address in Ankara, to great applause. “The lives of leaders are not dearer than the lives of children in Gaza, or anyone in Gaza."

Mr Abbas, who heads the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, visited Turkey after talks in Russia with Vladimir Putin earlier this week, and used his address to reiterate calls to the international community to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.

“I call on Arab and Islamic leaders around the world, and leaders of good countries around the world, to go to Gaza and establish peace for all,” Mr Abbas said.

He did not specify when or how he would visit Gaza, but said a visit would be followed by a trip to Jerusalem.

Turkish MPs gave Abbas several standing ovations, a nod, politicians said, to US Congress applause for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington last month.

The adulation was “a kind of message sent to US Congress where Netanyahu was applauded many, many times”, Ilhan Uzgel, head of foreign policy for Turkey’s main opposition party, told The National. “Turkey is giving the message to United States that you're supporting Israel, and we're supporting Palestinians.”

Mr Abbas also addressed recognition of the state of Palestine, a step taken by 145 members of the UN, but not key players such as the US.

“The European states have started to recognise the Palestinian state and we will press the US to recognise us too,” he said, in remarks in Arabic that were simultaneously translated into Turkish, English and French.

Turkey officially supports a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has been highly critical of Mr Netanyahu’s government since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and the war in Gaza. The Palestinian cause has broad support in Turkey across the political spectrum, although Mr Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and other conservative groups throw far greater weight behind Hamas than the social democrat Turkish opposition. They see Mr Abbas’s Palestinian Authority as the sole legitimate representative of Palestinians.

“Erdogan and his party are more pro-Hamas than pro-Palestinian Authority,” said Mr Uzgel. “But they, of course, like Turkey, recognise the Palestinian Authority, so they have contact with Mr Abbas too, of course.”

Mr Abbas arrived in Turkey following a diplomatic run-in with Mr Erdogan, who said he should apologise for failing to accept a previous invitation to come to the country. But the leaders greeted each other cordially on Wednesday and held in-depth talks in which they reiterated both Turkish support for Palestinians, and criticism of western nations seen as overwhelmingly supportive of Israel.

Hamas and Fatah, the Palestinian faction led by Mr Abbas, are long-standing rivals. Although they agreed to form a future joint government together in meetings last month in Beijing, China, similar previous agreements have never been implemented.

Mr Abbas did not directly address future Palestinian governance in his address but said "we want to copy the Turkish model in Palestine”, referring to a multiparty political system with a ruling and opposition parties.

Some Turks protested over Mr Abbas’s visit to Turkey, describing him on social media as an ally and facilitator of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They shared the hashtag “We do not want the traitor Abbas” and criticised MPs for applauding him.

Ultraconservative politicians attended the Palestinian President’s address carrying pictures of Ismail Haniyeh, the assassinated former political leader of Hamas.

Turkey initially tried to play a mediating role in the Gaza conflict, following the October 7 attacks that killed more than 1,200 people and saw about 240 taken as hostages. The country has since been overshadowed by the US, Egypt and Qatar in ceasefire talks, but Ankara has continued to differentiate its position from western nations by supporting Hamas and fiercely criticising Israel, without cutting off diplomatic ties completely.

Mr Abbas applauded steps taken by Turkey to support Palestinians, including sending humanitarian aid to Gaza and its move earlier this month to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. He also praised Turkey for cutting off trade ties with Israel, which used to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars every month.

“We salute the move to end trade with Israel,” Mr Abbas said. “Billions of dollars of trade were lost just to show solidarity with the Palestinian people.”