Gul calls out Erdogan at iftar

The June 7 elections not only ended the 12-year rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), but they also appear to be the beginning of a change in Turkey’s foreign policy orientation. Up for debate is Ankara’s untenable position in the Middle East, where it has no say over developments despite the dire affect those developments have on its security and economic interests.

With no guarantee that the AKP will regain its pre-eminent position in early elections, if a coalition government can’t be formed in the coming days, many consider the Sunni-based, pro-Muslim Brotherhood policies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — the AKP’s “spiritual leader” — and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to be at an end.

Ankara’s regional isolation may be seen as a “precious loneliness” by Erdogan’s close advisers — in a thinly shrouded effort to put a positive and moralistic spin on it — but even influential people associated with the AKP see that there is, in fact, precious little value to this “loneliness.”

Former President Abdullah Gul, Erdogan’s political fellow traveler and co-founder of the AKP, is the latest to lend his weight to the need for an urgent revision of Ankara’s foreign policy to make Turkey an “inspiring country” in its region again. Speaking at an iftar dinner last week, which was also attended by Erdogan, Gul made it clear that there was little to be gained from maintaining current policies.