Qatar crisis opens gates of anti-Trumpism in Turkey
Pro-government Turks who support Qatar have been hesitant to directly blame Saudi Arabia for the recent intra-GCC rift, preferring instead to scapegoat US intelligence services and President Donald Trump.
The election of US President Donald Trump was neither a surprise nor an unpleasant event for Islamists in Turkey. To the contrary, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were making extra efforts to cheer for their newly elected American colleague. Erdogan’s 22-minute March meeting with Trump, despite being a fiasco on multiple fronts, was portrayed as the beginning of an affectionate personal relationship. Pro-AKP media refrained from using negative language against Trump.
However, the tide took a stark turn with the Qatar crisis. As several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt, cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, Erdogan decided Turkey would stand with Qatar. Pro-AKP trolls took social media by storm with their #TurkiyeKatarKardestir (Turkey and Qatar Are Brothers) hashtag.
As AKP trolls and newspapers were trying to figure out how best to rally public support for Turkish deployment of troops in defense of Qatar, their mobilized reactions provide us clues about Erdogan's future plans.
A crucial common point in Erdogan’s speeches and pro-AKP columnists and social media trolls is to refrain from directly criticizing Saudi Arabia. If you follow the Qatar crisis exclusively on pro-AKP media outlets, you may not even be aware of the fact that Saudi Arabia is the main interlocutor in all this. Rather, you are made to believe the problem is the United States — more specifically, Trump.
