Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has resumed threatening that he is about to undertake a trip to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. A surprise trip:

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that a wave of demonstrations at home have delayed preparations for his planned visit to Gaza, but that he nonetheless intends to press ahead with the visit and could “make a surprise any time.”

Erdogan’s statements came as Turkish security forces expanded a crackdown on anti-government journalists, part of Ankara’s efforts to put down weeks of unrest. Police detained twenty more people and raided more homes in recent days. Medical personnel have reportedly been arrested as they were treating protesters. Intimidation of journalists has reached borderline comical levels.

Ankara’s heavy-handed response to the protests generated widespread domestic and international criticism, eroding the political legitimacy and diplomatic stature of Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP). The country’s pursuit of E.U. membership in particular has become more complicated.

There had already been worries that Erdogan would seek to rebuild his tattered image by traveling to Gaza and implicitly boosting Hamas, a move that would be popular with his Islamist base. U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, had condemned previous announcements that Erdogan would be traveling to Gaza, as had top officials from the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority (PA).

Erdogan’s announcement this week that he may indeed travel to Gaza came in the aftermath of a phone call between Erdogan and President Barack Obama. Obama lectured Erdogan regarding “the importance of nonviolence and of the rights to free expression and assembly and a free press.”

[Photo: Euronews / YouTube]