Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted a large delegation of Hamas officials in Istanbul on Saturday, including Deputy Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri.
Arouri is a designated terrorist who is on the United States' most-wanted list. According to NBC News, there is a $5 million bounty on his head.
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Arouri is Hamas' top official outside the Gaza Strip and is considered the mastermind behind many of the terrorist attacks the group stages. He is also in charge of directing Hamas operations in the West Bank, and is the group's chief money man, securing funding for its operations, and deciding on its distribution.
Saturday's meeting in Istanbul came against the backdrop of growing tensions between Israel and Hamas: Gaza-based terrorists have increased their arson attacks on Israel which elicit Israeli strikes on Hamas sites in the coastal enclave almost nightly.
In other developments, Turkish media reported Sunday that Erdogan has created a new security force, currently 500-strong, which will report directly to the Security Directorate in Istanbul.
The move has spark concern among Turkish opposition and human rights activists who fear that the new apparatus – the authorities of which are ambiguous at this time – will be modeled after Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The IRGC reports to and is loyal solely to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It also operates an elite extraterritorial arm – also known as the Quds Force.
Turkish opposition officials said Erdogan's move was "extremely dangerous."
The Turkish Peoples' Democratic Party, slammed the move, saying in a statement that it "points to the fact that the Turkish president seeks a one-man regime through forming parallel forces that follow his personal authority … similar to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard."
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Opposition MK Ibrahim Kaboglu tweeted that the move "contradicts the Turkish constitution."
Lawyer Mehmet Koksal was quoted by local media as saying that Erdogan's attempt to create a police force that only answers to him "is a very dangerous development. … This is how a police force was formed during the era of Hitler in Germany."
JNS.org contributed to this report.
