Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Türkiye next week to address Parliament in what pundits have called a "big opportunity" to define his position on the factions within the Palestinian resistance amid Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza.

Abbas’s speech will come against the backdrop of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in Iran, which briefly caused a power vacuum in the resistance group that was swiftly filled by Yahya Sinwar, the alleged mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Hamas, which has ruled the besieged Gaza Strip since 2007, and Abbas-led Fatah, the main party in the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority that administers parts of the occupied West Bank, last month agreed in China-sponsored talks to form a government together in an attempt at resolving their longstanding rivalry.

"Directly addressing the citizens of the Muslim world from Türkiye for the first time is an opportunity for Abbas to make his position clear and use this platform to send his message to Turkish politicians, the public and the rest of the world," Obaida Hitto, a correspondent for TRT World, told Daily Sabah.

Hitto believes the message being delivered in Türkiye doesn’t carry much weight for internal Palestinian dynamics but "because he's speaking in Türkiye, it's giving legitimacy to the Palestinian cause."

Policy beyond politics

Türkiye, whose support for the Palestinian cause has been steadfast, has hosted both Abbas and Haniyeh on many occasions, as recently as in March and April.

Ankara has been fiercely critical of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which it says amounts to genocide, and has halted all bilateral trade. It has also slammed many Western allies for their support of Israel and repeatedly called for Muslim unity to facilitate a desperately needed cease-fire.

At this point, Türkiye’s Palestine policy prioritizes an opposition to Israel’s occupational policies irrespective of Hamas or Fatah division, and engagement with all Palestinian factions ensures political and diplomatic support against Israel, according to associate professor Ismail Numan Telci, who teaches international relations at Sakarya University.

"On the other hand, having Abbas speak at Parliament as the legitimate political leader of the State of Palestine reveals Ankara’s Palestine policy has a context beyond political differences," Telci argued. "Türkiye will be backing global demands to stop Israel at the highest level with this initiative."

Telci also believes hosting Abbas at Parliament will cement Türkiye’s leadership among Muslim nations regarding the Palestinian cause and pressure regional actors like Egypt and Saudi Arabia to take more concrete steps to address it.

Bridging divide

Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş said he called for an extraordinary meeting of the Parliament on Aug. 15 for Abbas' address to "show our strong support for the Palestinian people and their cause and to ensure that the voice of the oppressed Palestinian people is heard around the world."

According to Hitto, Abbas is going to spend time in the address trying to recalibrate his position as a possible alternative to Hamas and Hamas-like leadership for the Palestinian cause on an international level.

"Therefore he is going to give a reconciliatory message," Hitto said.

Abbas will not dismiss Haniyeh and his role as the political head of Hamas in the way that Hitto thinks many people would like to see but he will "definitely try and shed the light on the opportunity that Fatah and his comrades have to play a role in a future solution."

Hitto believes Abbas will tread carefully not to drive a huge divide between himself as the representative of Fatah and the rest of the Palestinian cause, a strategy Fatah has abandoned for a long time now.

"It’s going to be very difficult for him to avoid making praise on the sacrifices that so many people have made over the last 10 months," Hitto said.

Israeli strikes have claimed nearly 40,000 lives in Gaza since October, mostly women and children, and decimated over 80% of public infrastructure, including means for clean water, food, health care and power.

Besides Haniyeh, Hamas has lost several military commanders to Israeli strikes, and the exact number of members killed is still unclear.

The resistance group wants a cease-fire and said Sinwar would pick up the negotiation process from where it was cut off but the new Hamas chief is said to prioritize armed struggle as the only strategic option going forward, at least for the foreseeable future. He dreams of a single Palestinian state bringing together the Gaza Strip, occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem.

Coming together seems elusive for the factions but the prisoner releases resulting from the brief November truce agreement with Israel have seen Hamas's popularity soar in the West Bank.

Hitto doesn’t think Abbas will be so aggressive in his Türkiye address that he will completely dismiss Haniyeh and Hamas' role or any of the other armed Palestinian factions that are resisting Israel through military power.

"Top of the agenda is going to be to try and get Israel to walk back their most recent ultimatum, which was basically Netanyahu saying a couple of days ago that a political solution, a two-state solution, is out of the question now," Hitto said.

Toeing the line

If, however, Abbas lowers his demands from the Israeli side, Türkiye could refrain from going so far in supporting him, Hitto said.

"Türkiye has been very clear about how it envisions the future of Palestine," he said.

Since long before Oct. 7, Ankara has called for a two-state solution within 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as Palestine’s capital.

Abbas earlier this week told Russian state RIA agency in an interview that Gaza must be transferred to the control of the legitimate Palestinian authorities, namely his administration.

"We strongly oppose Israeli plans that provide for some temporary solutions," he also said.

"If Abbas agrees to new borders and new occupation of Gaza and Jerusalem not being the capital and for settlers to continue creating new settlements and taking new land in the West Bank, I don't think Abbas is going to be able to justify his role as a leader of the Palestinian cause," Hitto said.

"I think Türkiye is very well aware of that and they're giving him the opportunity to fix or to make clear his position on the record and in a very prestigious place," he added. "Because the rest of the world, at least in the immediate neighborhood, in the Middle East, in North Africa, in the Muslim countries, people are going to be listening to this kind of address."