Turkish PM Plans Trip to Gaza Strip

Seen as legitimizing Hamas-controlled government

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said on Friday that he planned to visit the Gaza Strip soon, a move that would significantly enhance the legitimacy of the Hamas-controlled Gaza government and antagonize the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the West.

Mr. Erdogan, who twice last year scheduled and then canceled visits to Gaza, did not offer specifics about the timing or agenda for such a visit, which he mentioned to reporters traveling with him to Ankara from Berlin, according to the Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman. A Foreign Ministry official later said that the prime minister was simply expressing an "intention," and that he wanted to visit "someday."