Turkey’s regional ventures, spurred by Ottoman nostalgia, have earned it a hostile Arab front led by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. Though Turkey’s ambitions have hardly translated into a success story, they have fueled a plethora of myths and falsehoods that both Turks and Arabs are feeding off. 

In his comments on regional issues, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan often brings up the treaties that led to the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire or evoke the Ottoman legacy by, say, pledging Turkish citizenship to Lebanese Turks or speaking of one million ethnic Turks in Libya. For many in the Arab world, such statements are a signal that the Turks have designs on Arab lands and are eyeing a comeback. Maps of a “Greater Turkey” circulated by figures close to Erdogan have only fueled the suspicions. 

The Erdogan-controlled Turkish press has similarly fanned Arab fears by marketing Ankara’s regional moves with a heavy dose of hyperbole and nationalist bluster. Pro-government commentators theorize that the defense of Turkish borders begins in the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, boasting that Turkey is building lines of defense on three continents. Many Arab journalists, too, paint an overblown picture of Turkey and its capabilities, though in an alarmist fashion. From the optics of both sides, Turkey looks like a Leviathan pervading a sprawling region — from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen to Libya, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Mali and Senegal. Using the same toolbox, both sides are fanning enmity and deluding their respective publics.

Several years ago, for instance, pro-government Turkish news outlets hailed Sudan’s decision to lease its Suakin Island to Turkey as a development that “profoundly changes the balance” in the Red Sea. Although no Turkish base was there yet, they linked the island to the Turkish bases in Qatar and Somalia to celebrate a “Turkish triangle” in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. The same outlets, however, have neglected to follow up on the story, namely how Turkish ambitions on Suakin went down the drain after the overthrow of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Following the coup, the head of the military leadership was quick to assert that Suakin was an “inseparable part” of Sudan.