He hosts HAMAS leaders regularly and they call him “the elder brother.”

Turkey’s president Erdogan is in real trouble, after the United States’ Department of State officially designated Harakat Sawa’d Misr (HASM) and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as terrorist organizations, last week. That is not only because HASM and PIJ are affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood group, of which Erdogan is a leading member; but, also, because Turkey hosts the Egyptian leaders of HASM, who were also designated by U.S. State Department as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).

In mid-January, the U.S. State Department announced the designation of the Egypt-based militia, HASM, which is affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood, on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). Previously, in 2018, the U.S. State Department designated HASM and Liwa’ al-Thawra, which is also a militia affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood, as SDGT. HASM and Liwaa Al-Thawra are armed groups affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood and have been operating in Egypt, since the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood regime, in 2013. Their goal was to cause a state of extreme chaos that forces the military to return the Muslim Brotherhood regime back in power.

HASM was formed by young members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who fled to Turkey later on, in early 2015. From their safe residences in Turkey, the leaders of HASM continued to command operations implemented by the young members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who could not flee Egypt, at that time. HASM operations mainly targeted state officials and policemen and their innocent families.

The most prominent operation executed by HASM was the assassination of Egypt’s Attorney General, Hisham Barakat, in June 2015. According to recorded confessions of the perpetrators, the assassination was planned, instructed, and funded by HASM leaders, who are based in Turkey. The perpetrators, in Cairo, used to discretely communicate with the leaders, in Turkey, via encrypted online applications.

In the same statement, the U.S. State Department mentioned that they reviewed the FTO designation of the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and decided to maintain it. Although PIJ, operating in Gaza, is known as an Iran-backed terrorist militia, it is originally a faction of HAMAS and is, allegedly, supported, financially and politically by Qatar and Turkey.

HAMAS, which Erdogan shamelessly supports, is also one of the military wings of the Muslim Brotherhood. HAMAS has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, Britain, and some other countries, since 1990s. Turkish president Erdogan is friendly with both HAMAS and PIJ leaders. He hosts HAMAS leaders regularly and they call him “the elder brother.”

In August 2020, Erdogan hosted two HAMAS leaders, in Istanbul, despite knowing that HAMAS is a designated terrorist organization and that the two leaders he met are designated by the U.S. as SDGT. The U.S. State Department issued a press statement, at the time, condemning Erdogan’s “continued outreach” to terrorist organizations and warned that such meetings “only serve to isolate Turkey from the international community.”

After the recent designation of HASM and its founders, who live in Turkey, the Turkish president Erdogan is knowingly and purposefully harboring officially designated terrorists in his country. That may not only hurt him personally or his Islamist AKP party, but it may also incur serious sanctions on the people of Turkey, who are already struggling with a failing economy and the recently-imposed U.S. sanctions on their national defense industry.

Despite that, Turkey still declines Egypt’s requests to extradite the members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Turkey hosts, since 2013, including the leaders of the terrorist militia, HASM. Erdogan has, always, insisted on keeping the members of the Muslim Brotherhood in his country, including those involved in committing violent crimes against civilians and state institutions in Egypt. By doing so, he created a political rift with important Middle East countries, like Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. By continuing to do so, he is risking Turkey’s relationship with the European Union, NATO, and the United States, especially, in light of the cold shoulder diplomacy, which Joe Biden is already showing to him.

Is it worth severing Turkey’s ties with neighbors in the Middle East and Europe, risking Turkey’s relations with international allies, threatening the well-being of a country as big as Turkey, and causing 85 million innocent people to suffer diplomatic isolation and economic sanctions; only to provide a hotbed for Muslim Brotherhood members, including those who practiced and incited violence? This is the question that President Erdogan, and his loyal advisors, need to, urgently, consider, before it is too late.

Article first published on Liberal Democracy Institute.

LDI and the MBTO campaign shall continue their efforts to document Muslim Brotherhood violence and educate the public opinion…

The Popular Campaign to Designate the Muslim Brotherhood as an International Terrorist Organization (MBTO), and campaign’s host, the Liberal Democracy Institute (LDI), welcome the decision, announced Thursday, by the United States Department of State to officially designate HASM as a terrorist organization.

On January 14th, the US Department of State designated the Egypt-based Harakat Sawa’d Misr (HASM) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. In 2018, HASM and Liwaa Al-Thawra, two Egypt-based armed groups, were announced as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). The State Department has also reviewed the FTO designation of the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and maintained it.

“This designation is a new proof that the Muslim Brotherhood is a violent group, that qualifies to be designated as a foreign terrorist organization. HASM, Liwaa Al-Thawra, HAMAS and PIJ are armed factions of the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet, the US still cannot designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization;” said Dalia Ziada, Director of LDI.

“While we are not optimistic that the new U.S. Administration of president Joe Bide may take serious steps towards designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, LDI and the MBTO campaign shall continue their efforts to document Muslim Brotherhood violence and educate the public opinion, worldwide, about the extremist ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, which feeds the rhetoric of almost all Islamist terrorist organizations, who are wreaking havoc in the Middle East, today.” Dalia Ziada added.

“The Popular Campaign to Designate the Muslim Brotherhood as an International Terrorist Organization” (MBTO) is an initiative, by the Liberal Democracy Institute (LDI) to document the violent crimes committed by the Muslim Brotherhood, since the overthrow of their regime in Egypt, in 2013, against innocent civilians, Coptic Christians, policemen and their families, and state institutions. The campaign documented more than 3000 violent atrocities committed by the members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the period between, June 2013 to December 2015.

Article first published on LDI.