Has Turkey’s regional power grab come to an end?
Turkey is forfeiting its claims for regional supremacy by joining the Saudi-led Sunni alliance and making friendly overtures toward Israel.
Turkey’s fervent aspiration for regional power in the Middle East is over after it made itself a party to the raging sectarian conflict rather than providing a meaningful contribution to a possible solution to the Syrian imbroglio.
If there were any doubts, the ruling Justice and Development Party's latest desperate moves to escape its increasingly international isolation should remove them: In mid-December, Ankara plunged into the Saudi-led 34-nation military alliance of Sunni nations. Parallel to this ill-conceived decision, Turkey's rapprochement with Israel is said to be underway.
The Saudi-led alliance, which even Pakistan and Malaysia have declared they were not joining, is justifiably seen by many analysts as a Sunni coalition through which Saudi Arabia aims to check and reduce Iran’s regional influence. By agreeing to be among the likes of Comoros, Mali and Niger and led by Saudi Arabia, Turkey forfeited its claim to being the historical Sunni counterweight to Iran, going back to the 16th-century rivalry between the Ottoman Empire and the Safavids. That is not a role suited to a country with an imperial legacy whose glory is revisited frequently by the current power holders in Turkey.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule had already made Turkey a part of a subregional axis competing with Saudi influence over the Sunni world.
