Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood

Turkey’s Islamist-based foreign policy under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has left Ankara’s ties with the Arab world in shambles. His policies aimed at the region following the Arab Spring, which were mostly predicated on support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots, washed away all ties with Arab regimes.

Barring the exception of Qatar, which clearly has pragmatic reasons for cozying up to Turkey, Erdogan today has hardly any friends left among Arab leaders. Meanwhile, the number of Turkey’s Arab enemies and rivals has increased two fold when compared with the situation prior to 2002, when the AKP first came to power.

The recent decisions by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to establish diplomatic ties with Israel are only the latest setbacks for Ankara in a region where it once aimed to play a leading role. Ankara is on guard now against losing more political ground in the region given the possibility that other Arab countries may opt to join the UAE and Bahrain.

Nevertheless, many analysts believe Ankara’s meddling in the Arab world’s affairs and its strong support for the Muslim Brotherhood have also contributed to pushing some of these regimes toward Israel.

Turkey remains the only noteworthy regional power that continues to provide strong backing and shelter to the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots.

Erdogan’s hosting of senior Hamas members in Istanbul on Aug. 22 elicited an angry response from Washington, which considers the Islamist Palestinian group to be a terrorist organization.