Turkey has completely failed in the Middle East, Turkish Middle reporter East Semih Idiz stated in his article for the Hurriyet Daily News.
“Blinded by their limited understanding of foreign policy and regional calculations grounded on their Islamist/Sunni outlook, Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu walked into traps they set internationally, by quixotically chasing after pipe-dreams, not the least of which was the assumption that Turkey was a natural leader for the Middle East,” he writes.
The author explained that as a result, Turkey nowadays has no ties with Israel, no ties to speak of with Egypt, has alienated Iran and — as the last verbal sparring between Ankara and Baghdad over Turkey’s deployment of troops north of Mosul shows — has strained ties with Iraq.
Until the Justice and Development Party (Turkish abbreviation AKP) of Erdogan and Davutoglu came to power, Ankara's foreign policy was based on non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, let alone working for regime change in other countries, the author says.
“Erdogan and Davutoglu pulled all that down, arguing that Ankara’s past foreign policy was based on a 'servile' understanding of Turkey’s regional capacities.”
“It soon became apparent that they never understood the basic dynamics of this part of the world and how the region views Turkey.”
“Having set out to reduce Turkey’s 'servility', they increased Ankara’s dependence on outside support for its security from regional threats. They also left Turkey hanging on the coattails of other powers in an effort to regain some of its lost regional influence.”
And even though Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to put on a brave face, saying that Turkey has alternatives to Russia, in the aftermath of the shootdown of the Russian bomber, it’s nothing but a “totally failed Middle East policy,” the author finally concludes.
