Turkey’s 'Precious Isolation' In the Middle East
Foreign policy decisions by the Erdogan government, including on Egypt and Syria, have left Turkey without any influence over events in the Middle East.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be something of a folk hero for the disenfranchised masses in the Middle East, but Turkey’s political influence with the powers that effectively continue to govern the region’s established order is all but gone.
Having seriously fallen out with Iran over Syria and with the Palestinian Authority over Hamas, Ankara is now in the process of alienating itself from other Arab powers — headed by Saudi Arabia — over Egypt, thus further deepening its regional isolation.
As for Turkey’s ties with Egypt, it appears these will take considerable time to normalize since no one expects the situation in that country to be resolved anytime soon in a way the Erdogan government expected. Meanwhile Turkey continues to have zero relations with Damascus, while its support for Islamist elements in the Syrian opposition has turned into a serious headache.
Concerned about their credibility among supporters, government officials in Ankara are now trying to capitalize on the aloneness Turkey has fallen into in the region by inventing new concepts that stretch the imagination. One such official is Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan’s principal foreign policy adviser.
