Jahangir Mohammed argues new solutions to Palestinian suffering and occupation need to be found. The West has failed for over a hundred years to resolve the Palestine question and now Muslims must find their own solutions. Controversially he suggests that one option might be for Turkey to reclaim its former territory.

Is It Time for Turkey to Reclaim Palestine?

The people of Palestine, particularly its non-Jewish inhabitants, have not seen peace since the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War (1914-1918).

The Young Turks finally usurped the rule of the Sultans/Caliphs in 1909 and took over the Ottoman Empire. They also made the fatal decision to ally with Germany in the first World War. The Ottoman navy attacked Russian ports in the Black Sea in October 1914. This led to Russia, Britain, and France declaring war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914. The mistake of allying with Germany was a disaster for those that lived under Ottoman protection in Arab and North African territories.

The War ended in 1918. However, Britain had already decided the fate of Palestine and its non-Jewish inhabitants in a commitment made to European Zionists in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The British Government agreed to Zionist aspirations for a Jewish State in Palestine. Britain’s administration of Palestine commenced in 1918, and a formal mandate was issued to Britain by the League of Nations in 1922.

From 1914 till today, there has been suffering and dispossession in the region, for Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims as well as Christians. The United Nations imposed the state of Israel on the people of the region in 1947 with its official establishment by David Ben Gurion in May 1948.

Although the Balfour Declaration also stated that nothing should be done to undermine the rights of non-Jewish communities, the state of Israel and European Jewish occupiers continue to undermine the rights of non-Jewish communities.

“It being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the existing civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine…” Balfour Declaration 1917

A Century of Oppression for Palestinians.

Whilst the state of Israel protects the rights of Jews, there is little protection for non-Jewish communities in Palestine. As a consequence, the Christian community in Palestine is heading for extinction in the next decade. Palestinian lands and homes have gradually been taken over by so-called “settlers,” and their rights eroded. Israel grants Jews from all around the world citizenship and settlement. Yet around five million Palestinian refugees are not allowed to return to their homeland. Many still languish in squalid camps or run-down areas in different countries. These refugees are supposedly the responsibility of a separate UN relief agency for the assistance and protection of Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). Brutality, abuse, killings, and bombing are frequent occurrences in Palestine. Attacks on Al Aqsa mosque are ongoing this Ramadan as in previous years, and religious rights are undermined.

Meanwhile, Gaza has been described as an open-air prison and has been under blockade for 14 years. Refugee agencies predict it will soon become unliveable. In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority has little power to change the condition of its people, even to protect them from dispossession.

Whilst the Palestinians and the Muslim world have looked to the USA, European countries, and the United Nations for solutions, the result has been one disappointment after another. The truth is that the USA and Europeans have never been neutral from the outset, they not only side with Israel, but their politicians and Western media absurdly portray the Palestinians as oppressors even dismissing their right to self-defence from occupation under international law. On the other hand, the nuclear state of Israel, supported by the entire Western world is portrayed as a victim. Western politicians in fact do everything possible to protect Israel from even the mildest criticism in the media, civil society, and at the United Nations. There is no pressure on Israel to come to any resolution whilst it enjoys the support of Europe and the USA. It is also obvious to most that there is no real “United Nations” or international community. It has always been a league of powerful nations protecting their own interests and imposing their will on the world.

The Solution to Palestine Rests with the Muslim World.

The Western world has had over a hundred years to produce a solution to the suffering of the Palestinian people. They have failed miserably. It must be obvious by now that most Western politicians really do not care about Palestinians, no matter the extent of their suffering, they will continue to support and side with Israel.

Muslim countries can continue living under the illusion that the Western world will help find a solution to the issue of Palestine and hold Israel to account for its crimes, or they must produce their own solutions. There are 53 Muslim majority states. That they lack the confidence (or will) to produce a solution or aid Palestine is a sad situation for the Ummah.

The suffering of the Palestinian people cannot be allowed to continue. Since the United Nations and the West have failed to end the occupation of Palestinian territories and protect its people, the Palestinian people have the right to ask any state, or group of states, to come to their territory and aid them and act as their protector. That also requires the Palestinian people to think outside of the political nationalist mindset that Europe imposed on the Muslim world post World War I.

The Treaty of Lausanne: Should Turkey Re-Assert Its Claim to Palestine?

Zionists (Christian and Jewish) claim that European Jews have a right to Palestine by virtue of a 2000-year-old Biblical link. Using this logic, Turkey has a much greater right and claim to Palestine by virtue of physical possession and a ruling link dating to over a hundred years ago. Since there has been no peace in that land from the end of the Ottoman State, Turkey should consider reasserting its right and claim to Palestine to protect its people.

Until now, Turkey has been prevented from asserting claims to lands previously under the authority of the Ottoman State, by the Treaty of Lausanne which came into effect in July 1923. The treaty required the new Republic of Turkey to give up all entitlement to lands no longer within the borders defined for it by the victors in World War I (Articles 16 and 27 of the treaty).

The treaty itself is an interesting document. It goes to great length on the rights of non-Muslims to be observed by the new Turkish state. It is a pity that Britain did not go into such detail about the rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine and a future Jewish state. The Treaty also lists the debts of the Ottoman state, the interest rate to be paid, and when the last payment due date for each debt (Turkey was forced to pay off Ottoman debts to the Europeans).

All treaties come to an end after one hundred years. From July 2023 Turkey need no longer  be bound by the Lausanne Treaty, unless it is renewed.

Turkey has another interest in lands in Palestine. Sultan Abdul Hamid II was aware of the Zionist plans for Palestine. Whilst granting refuge to Jews being persecuted in Europe, he prohibited them from settling in Palestine or in large numbers in one area. When he saw that locals in Palestine were selling land to Jews, he purchased large tracts of strategic land in Palestine himself, from his personal wealth, to prevent the Zionist plan.

However, when the Young Turks took over, they nationalised his assets. These assets became the property of the British mandate. Had they remained in private hands they would not have. A few years ago whilst undertaking research into Sultan Abdul Hamid II, I found evidence that his family had indeed tried to recover the late Sultan’s assets that had been stolen from him.

It is also possible for Palestinian people living under Israeli occupation to invite Turkey back to administer its former territories and end oppression by Israel. Just as the UN-backed Libyan government invited Turkey to intervene in Libya and prevent General Haftar from taking Tripoli. Libya could also ask Turkey to intervene to restore peace and law and order on a more permanent basis.

Of course, Turkey being a member of NATO and the Western alliance is unlikely to want to reclaim its former territories. The Palestinians should not limit themselves to Turkey. They have every right as an occupied people to ask any other Muslim or non-Muslim country, or a number of them, to come and intervene on humanitarian grounds to bring an end to the occupation, and oppression, and restore a peaceful life.

Whatever the solution, Muslims and Palestinians need to think outside of USA, European and UN frameworks to find a solution to this never-ending misery. What cannot continue is this permanent and daily suffering of the Palestinian people.