Turkey has denied claims that it is exerting pressure on Hamas to leave Syria, hit by an eight-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, during which 4,000 people have been killed, Today's Zaman reported.
A news report, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, said that Hamas has ordered the departure of its staff based in Damascus, home to a political branch of the Palestinian group for more than a decade, due to growing pressure from Turkey and Qatar. The report cited remarks of a Hamas official.
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and other top Palestinian political figures have been running political operations from their headquarters in Syria but the picture is changing as the country is being shaken politically and socially by those who oppose the regime, which has brutally quashed protests held in support of a transition to democracy and an end to the single-party political system.
Turkish Foreign Ministry officials, speaking to Today's Zaman on the condition of anonymity, however, denied pressuring Hamas, saying Turkey has not told anyone how to act. "Everyone will determine their fate. We have said nothing to anyone except for calling for conciliation and peace in [Palestinian] domestic politics. We have said nothing on other issues [regarding Hamas' presence in Syria]," said an official.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, a senior Hamas official said Turkey and Qatar had ramped up pressure on Hamas to leave the country. "They said: 'Have you no shame? It's enough. You have to get out'," according to the report.
Turkey, once a close ally of Syria, and Qatar, which has appeared at the forefront in the Arab League in pushing to impose strict sanctions on the Baath regime, urged Hamas, according to the newspaper, to not stay in the tumultuous country at a time when peaceful protesters are being killed by President Assad's troops.
The call is a signal that those two countries are uneasy with Hamas' presence in Damascus under the aegis of a brutal regime that is cracking down on its own people.
The same Hamas official told the daily that Hamas would relocate its headquarters to Cairo and Qatar in the coming weeks.
However, another official from Hamas, Salah al-Arouri, denied reports the group was leaving Damascus -- as quoted in Israel's Haaretz newspaper -- and stated that they had a good relationship with the regime.
Hamas has remained silent over the Syrian unrest over the past eight months, while The Wall Street Journal report suggests it may now be reconsidering its position so as to save its future.