The 'Sunnification' Of Turkish Foreign Policy
Turkey once hoped to be a peace broker in the region, but is now increasingly seen as inflaming sectarian divisions and instability, writes Semih Idiz.
When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002, one of its main plans was to use Ankara’s open channels of communication with practically all parties in the Middle East, together with Turkey’s growing “soft power,” to mediate in all kinds of regional disputes and contribute to stability in this turbulent part of the world.
This vision was further energized after Ahmet Davutoglu was appointed foreign minister in May 2009. He wasted no time in implementing his highly encouraging “zero problems with neighbors” policy. It appeared to be working, too, when it emerged that Ankara was negotiating a deal between Israel and Syria.
All of that seems a distant memory today. The state of Turkey’s diplomatic relations with Israel, for one, have not only hit rock bottom, but have also ensured that Ankara is no longer a player in the Middle East peace process. Syrian President Bashar al Assad, in the meantime, has turned into Davutoglu's and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s arch enemy.
In the meantime, the Erdogan government’s approach to the Syrian crisis has also resulted in Turkey being increasingly accused of becoming part of the problem in Syria. In an op-ed in The New York Times, Halil M. Karaveli, a senior fellow affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stockholm, argued that Turkey today “is exacerbating Syria’s sectarian strife, rather than contributing to a peaceful and pluralistic solution."
