Erdogan’s anti-Israel rhetoric may not have impact he expects
Turkey, with a fragile economy mostly dependent on the benevolence of its European partners and Israel, cannot swagger about in the Middle East.
There has not been a single week when Turkey did not make headlines in the international media, especially by the second half of 2017.
The latest was last week; this time the subject was Israel. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s comments, though, were not totally unjustified. Turkey is the current chairman of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and it was impossible for Erdogan to sit idle while Israel imposed excessive measures denying Muslim worshippers from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, the third holiest place for Muslims. Consequently, Erdogan took the initiative to call the leaders of the Muslim countries for joint action. He also called Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
